


Zootopia: SKYFALL

by SpaceMacgyver



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Action, Audio Content, Confessions, Crimes & Criminals, Death, Fights, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Injury, Investigations, Loss, Medical, Mental Health Issues, Missing in Action, Psychological Drama, Weapons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 43,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23982052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceMacgyver/pseuds/SpaceMacgyver
Summary: 2 years after the Night Howlers case, everything is doing well for Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps. The acolytes, inseparables, now work together for the best or for the worst. However, the worst is never far away. When Nick disappears in a mysterious accident, Judy doesn’t know what to do. Stuck between pain and visceral necessity to know the truth, she’ll finally throw herself into that particularly difficult case and won’t hesitate to team up with another fox, more mysterious, who seems to have the same goal.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	1. The Calm before the Storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [My grandfather](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=My+grandfather).



> Disclaimers: Zootopia and all related characters are owned by the Walt Disney Company.  
> This fiction contains imagined characters. Any resemblance to any person, dead or alive, is purely  
> coincidental
> 
> This is my first fan fiction so don't hesitate to give me feedback ;)  
> Enjoy

6:00 AM on Monday morning, Judy's alarm clock rang. She stopped it and got up energetically as usual, stretching and letting out a long yawn before opening her eyes. She jumped from her wobbly bed and opened the curtains, clearly worn by time, to let the warm multicolored light of the rising sun enter the room.

All these solar reflections generated colorful hues on the distant buildings of downtown Zootopia. She watched this spectacle which she was used to at this time of the year but which never tired her. She landed for a few minutes, head between the paws and elbows on the windowsill. Surprising herself quickly daydreaming, she got up with a start:

"Already 10 minutes!" I’ll be late! "

She would not be, like never before, her service starting only at 7:30 am and living only 10 minutes by metro from the central station, she had never had a problem with her schedules. However, she attached great importance in being the first, especially since she was competing with Nick to find out who was the fastest.

She prepared at last speed, putting on her uniform in less time than it takes to say it, checked the condition of her coat and her ears in the mirror, just in order to appear in the best possible shape as possible. Then she grabbed her keys to close her apartment that was nothing more than a room with a bed, an equipped desk and a wardrobe.

Five minutes later she arrived in front of the police station, the city was slowly waking up: shops were starting to open in Savanna central and people were more and more numerous in the streets, some going to work, the youngest to school.

She crossed the square with a determined step:

"No fox in sight!" "She exclaimed by checking the surroundings both with her eyes and with her ears which she turned in all directions like a radar.

She entered the still empty hall and walked to the reception area where Clawhauser had barely put down his bag down, half asleep.

“Hi Claw! “She cried, which made the cheetah leap:

"AHHHH! Wait ... What?" He leaned over to see the rabbit that had burst out laughing

"Ah, it's you Judy" he said with a breath of frustration in response to the bunny's attitude and his own some slightly excessive reaction. Resuming his usual good humor, he replied

"Still with your bet as I can see, however, is it part of the bet to scare me to death? "

"It's not a bet ..." she retorted in a playful tone "... it's a scientific demonstration that the ..."

A distant voice came to cut her in her tracks: "... that foxes are faster than rabbits".

She froze, surprised; eyes wide open in astonishment, which must have made her look ridiculous since that snatched laughter from Clawhauser. Faced with this reaction, now looking quite frustrated, she lowered her ears to her back and clenched her fists.

She turned around by pivoting on her lower legs to see a red fox in uniform. The latter, leaning on the wall had a donut on his paw and smiled with his usual cynical air.

"It's called a hustle sweetheart" he simply declared with a canine smile which was so usual for him.

Judy resolved to abandon this ridiculous air which only intensified the laughter of the cheetah, resuming a serene posture, she replied confidently:

"I let you win! "

"That must be it, carrots," Nick replied with the same attitude.

Judy was about to justify herself when the other police officers entered the hall. To her surprise, instead of continuing this duel, Nick invited Judy to have breakfast, which she did not refuse; she grabbed three donuts from the package placed on Clawhauser's desk before settling down in the break room.

It wasn’t a large room but it was essential for the police station, with an equipped kitchen area and a sitting area with sofas and television. In addition, a large glass window overlooking the square allowed the outside light to pass through, which made it even more colorful and made it feel larger. With the morning sun, it took very pleasant orange hues which reminded the rabbit of the color of her favorite dish.

Surprised by the catches of Judy, the fox didn’t miss an opportunity to winnow his partner:

"Well I say! We shouldn't be talking about wolf hunger but instead about rabbit hunger” declared the fox, sipping coffee, always with his characteristic smile

"It's not my fault; it's my teeth, if you knew how quickly these things grow!" The rabbit said between two mouthfuls. They didn’t have time to go further that the police station radio called everyone for briefing.

Everyone entered the room and sat down, Nick and Judy, as usual, sharing the same chair in the front row. Chief Bogo was announced and entered the room, taking the attention not to bang his head in the doorway. Everyone stood up, but Bogo's counter-order was almost immediate. All were silent and complied so that the head of the brigade could begin:

"Hello everyone, I hope you had a good weekend and ..."

He was cut off by Nick's intervention: “excellent chief, what about you?"

Outraged, Bogo could not help showing his anger:

"It wasn't a question Wilde!"

"Sorry chief, I’ve always been a little bit dim-witted" the fox allowed himself to answer, a teasing smile still on his lips.

He watched the reaction of his colleagues who camouflage their laughter in their own way.

Bogo didn’t answer to this second offense, seeing that he won’t have the last word, and continued:

"Well where were we? A yes, nothing particular to report in lately, it's a dead calm, it’s just like the criminals went on vacation! However, and before anyone comes to disturb me at work in my office, that does not mean that you are on vacation one week earlier! Alright, assignments! "

The leader called all the groups, dispatching the patrols in all the districts of the city, then comes the turn of Nick and Judy:

"Hopps and Wilde, you’ll patrol today and all this week long at Rainforest district, dismissed!"

With these words, everyone complied and left the room, heading for the garages. When they arrived in front of their service vehicle, a "Z-240", the ordinary police force vehicle: a reinforced and fast 4x4, colored in black with its characteristic white Z visible on each side. Judy and Nick rushed over to the driver's side in order take the wheel.

"Hey fluff! It’s my turn! You already took it on Friday»

"Nope, Monday’s my day, you forgot?" Retorted the rabbit.

"You know what, let’s settle this like adults" proposed the fox with a most concentrated air

"Okay," she replied, with unwavering seriousness.

The two took a step back, extended their right paw and closed their fists

"Ready?" Asked the fox

"Ready" ……..

"Rock-paper-scissors!" At these words, the two adopted their symbol: Nick opted for the rock and Judy for the paper, making the lagomorphs the winner.

Best two out or three? Nick exclaimed, paw on the forehead.

Judy, who was jumping for joy, replied victoriously: "And no! I take the wheel! We lost enough time like that, come on! "

“Alright! You’re the boss” he said, resuming his normal attitude, forgetting his defeat.

The patrol was going on for the best, the acolytes left Savannah central, crossing many densely populated districts; bringing together both shops and urban dwellings which were very colorful at this time of the day. Nick watched the many passers-by living their day, with a mixture of curiosity and good humor. Some opened their shops of all kinds, from the bakery to the grocery store while others got into their vehicles to get to work. Some saying goodbye to their families by greeting them from the street. He turned his head towards his partner, while driving; she peeked back at him with a radiant smile before refocusing on the road.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? “ She started “it’s crazy how such trivial things can motivate you so much! "

"Indeed, carrot, it’s pretty and I hope it boosts you well because we are going to Rainforest District, also known as ..."

He paused, hoping for an answer from Judy, but it didn't come.

"… Of the neighborhood where the sun is as present as in a cave" finished the fox, teasing smile on his lips. "Or I’ve better: the neighborhood where vitamin D ran away from”

"You’re exaggerating" finally answered the rabbit "it’s sunny almost 100 days a year there, it's just that, right now is the rainy season"

"Rainy season or not, I prefer the dry and warm areas of the center of the city" defended Nick while stretching himself in his seat.

A silence settled for a few minutes, Judy concentrated on the road and Nick still watching the surroundings from his window. It was Judy who put an end to the situation: "So what’s the news?"

"Nothing special, the elections are approaching, they are already beginning to bombard us with their programs, I could make a book with everything I have received!"He almost laughed

"The same! " She exclaimed" it's terrible! "Do you know who you're going to vote for?" 

"No idea!" He replied in a humorous tone "it's all the same anyway"

"Not wrong," Judy said simply to close the political conversation. "And you carrots?" "

"My 273rd sister celebrated her 10 years old; I spent my entire Saturday finishing my report on our famous Cerf who used to be a belt thief"

"Do you realize? It’s not every day that the world is seriously endangered by falling pants, imagine an elephant’s one! The physical and psychological shocks would be undeniable! Imagine with mousses! "

The ironic and scripted tale of Nick, who played the scene wonderfully, made Judy laugh.

"Besides, Juds? "

"Yes? "Answered the rabbit, trying to stop laughing

"We are on vacation next week; would that tell you if we go camping, between friends? "

Surprised by Nick's proposal, she immediately resumed her seriousness: "Oh? So you’ll miss me?” She replied in a slightly mocking tone, smirking

"Oh no" he simply said, without sign of any weakness towards his partner, he just turned his head outwards, eyes looking at the sky and a smile on his lips:

"I just thought you might like to go out and explore the world a bit, but hey, it's up to you ..."

Very paradoxically, it’s Judy who seemed embarrassed by her own answer, she was about to reply when the radio launched a warning message: "We have a traffic accident on the ring east road of Rainforest district; we need immediate reinforcements in code 3 "

Nick took the walkie talkie and replied immediately: "Copy , here’s patrol 124, we're on the spot, dispatch"

Judy took the opportunity to refocus on the mission, she started flashing lights and siren before pressing the accelerator, direction the eastern ring road of Rainforest district.


	2. An Officer's fate

"So THIS is your accident?!” Exclaimed Judy, spreading her arms in misunderstanding.

"Well yes, do you even imagine the job it is to unclog this ring road? "

Officer Fangmeyer was pointing the way, a ring road hanging halfway between the foliage of huge tropical trees and the swamps at ground level. At this time, the traffic lane was completely saturated while hundreds of horns echoed over what should have been one or two kilometers.

"Great! We're going to have fun with people who are already angry! "Exclaimed Nick whose irony appeared to transform into motivation" Plus, it’s raining! "

Judy rolled her eyes then smiled before resuming:

"Nick and I are going to find the beginning of this jam; you stay here with Grizzoli to control the vehicles arriving on the road"

"Ok" simply responded to the tiger before getting into position with his teammates

Nick and Judy then began to advance through the endless vehicle lane.

It was starting to rain seriously and they already seemed to regret not having taken an umbrella.

The rabbit had already folded her ears because of the persistent noise of the horns, but it didn’t seem to be enough.

She stopped for a moment, closing her eyes, paws over her ears. Nick noticed this reaction and stopped, Eyes full of empathy:

"You OK? Is it the noise? "

"Yes, it's unbearable! “ She exclaimed “How can you stand it? “

He removed an ear plug from his ear with a victorious smile.

"Sly fox!" "She smiled

"Take these," he offered, taking a box out of his pocket. "This is my spare pair; they haven’t been used ye..."

He barely finished his sentence that she snatched the box from his hands and ran towards the first vehicle of the lane. Under the surprised look of the fox.

The two police officers finally arrived in front of the first vehicle. It was an ordinary car which seemed to be in good condition, it did not seem to encounter any difficulty; which was particularly odd since it caused a traffic jam of almost two kilometers.

Fortunately, it was a car suitable for Class 2 mammals; the driver’s side window was within the reach of Nick and Judy. The rabbit waved the driver to open the tinted window and then removed her hearing protectors.

"Hello, ZPD what's the pro…"

She cut straight when she saw who she was talking to.

"Good ………… Morning………officer ………… “ Began the sloth.

"Oh no, not again!” The rabbit facepawed while the fox left

“I’ll leave it to you! I've talked to sloths enough this year "he said.

"I… Nick no! Come back here, "she cried, but it was too late, he was already far away.

"Aaaalrrright! Ok ...” she gave up, desperate.

Turning back to the driver, she huffed and then took a breath as if to take the patience she was going to need to start a discussion with these animals so renowned for their speed.

"Why did you stop in the middle of the road?"

Meanwhile, the fox, proud of his escape, had gone on reconnaissance. So in front of the whole line of blocked vehicles, he could see the extent of the damage. He giggled

“Sloths, always incredible!”

The rain had subsided and some rays of sun were now crossing the canopy. Nick looked up at the sun and closed his eyes, enjoying the moment. However, the sound of a van came to pull him out of his reverie.

He immediately opened his eyes and looked around for the vehicle. It was a black van with tinted windows. It had dodged the entire queue using the emergency lane and was about to overtake the one of the Sloths.

He stepped in, gesturing for it to stop and pull over, which it did.

When the vehicle stopped, its occupants did not show up, which called out to Nick. Ears down, he approached cautiously, feeling ready to react at any moment.

He rounded the vehicle on the right side. When he got to the back, he leaned over slightly to watch the side.

But as soon as he saw the sliding door, he remained marble.

The door had a symbol in the center. We could see a star there: it was a central hexagon surrounded by six smaller triangles, all in white color. The interior of the star was as black as the body of the vehicule, making it appear empty.

At the center, still in white, Nick could see the number 426. Behind the star, two tridents were visible, crossing each other like the pirate flags did. Finally, on the outside of the star, two letters were visible: G on the left and H on the right.

Nick now seemed terrified, fur spiking and ears folding back, he backed up slowly. His wide open eyes and dilated pupils reflected his panic.

It didn't take long for the door to suddenly open. A wolf in a black anorak came out.

Nick jumped. He tried to act trustfully with a nervous smile, falsely confident.

“Oh! Heyyyyyyyy! Hi...... We can arrange our ... “He did not finish his sentence; the wolf had released an MP5 submachine gun of which he had activated the automatic mode.

He ran for his life, took the opportunity to take his service weapon and just had enough time to call out to Judy before the deluge of bullets began.

"JUDY! TAKE COVER!” 

The rabbit, who had just dislodged the sloths and who was about to remove the roadblocks, immediately turned to the cries, eyes wide open, on the prowl. It only took her an instant to figure out what was to come.

The wolf opened fire; the detonations of the bursts were heard. The already deafening sound echoed throughout the neighborhood, causing panic for motorists in the ring road. Some left their vehicle running in a haphazard fashion, others stayed inside but lowered their heads to avoid being shot.

Judy threw herself on the ground and, in a roll, took shelter behind the nearest car. She took her service weapon and shouted into her walkie-talkie.

"We have a 10-71! We need Backup immediately! "

“Copy! On our way!” Replied a voice, as terrified as the bunny’s one.

She decided to take a look to locate the attackers. She layed on her stomach and crawled under the vehicle.

Arriving under the front shock, she could see the shooter. He was hiding behind his vehicle, a large black van, including windows. He had stopped shooting after only two bursts.

However, far from running away, he seemed to be preparing for something.

Returning to reality, she began to actively look for her partner, turning her head in all directions. Then she saw, on the edge of the road, a maintenance trench. Probably used for public works.

Knowing her partner by heart, she smiled determinedly and fired a shot at the vehicle, just two meters away from the wolf. He backed away and replied with another salvo.

Her plan had worked, Nick had taken advantage of the diversion to get out of his hiding place and run to safety.

However, as he was on his way to Judy, the wolf finally touched Nick in the shoulder, he fell to the ground, holding his wound and groaning in pain.

Judy, petrified by the scene, could not do anything.

But instead of finishing the fox, the predator moved away and jumped from the ring road, condemning himself to fifty meters of free fall.

Without further questions, the rabbit ran towards her partner; she was about to reach him when the dark vehicle disintegrated in a deluge of flames and debris.

The blast was so intense that the two were violently thrown towards the vehicle behind.

The rabbit got up with difficulty, visibly very battered, holding her ears and curling up. Everything was burning around her and a powerful tinnitus filled her ears. She slowly got up, barely conscious.

Then what she saw froze her blood : Nick was lying on the ground, lifeless.

Panicked, she ran up to the fox, put him on his back and looked for a pulse.

"NICK! STAY WITH ME! 

The fox, in serious condition, still opened his eyes and found the strength to make a slight smile.

"It's gonna be OK Carrots” he feverishly said, trying to reassure her.

He put his paw on Judy’s one and looked at her straight in the eyes. She had the same expression as under the bridge, during their reunion, when their relationship had been severely shaken.

He tried to smile at her again but slowly lost consciousness until his eyes closed and his head tilted to the side.

“NO NO! NICK! STAY WITH ME, STAY WITH ME! She cried out louder.

She was completely panicked and didn't seem to control herself anymore. She embarked on a frenzied CPR before someone caught her to keep her away from the injured fox.

Paramedics and firefighters had just arrived and started their intervention.

She struggled as violently as irrationally, after three attempts to get closer to Nick, all ineffective, she finally gave up.

"Let me see him!" She insisted one last time, more feverish in her voice.

She felt herself weakening, the tinnitus continued and the voices seemed more and more distant, she breathed more and more quickly and irregularly. She could feel her heart beating at a breakneck pace.

"Judy! He will be fine! Are you okay? ”

As that last distant voice spoke to her, her vision blurred, the last images she saw before falling to the ground were paramedics trying to rescue her friend.

After that, complete silence and darkness.

\--------------------------------

12 pm, Amazonas Hospital, 2 hours after the incident.

The emergency department was full, just like in any self-respecting hospital. It was a hive of activity animated by a persistent brouhaha in between the phone calls, the orders of the doctors and the complaints of the patients.

Chief Bogo entered the room in a hurry, almost slamming the double doors of the department. He was winded, probably after a run, and looked really worried; which was really surprising considering his usual behavior. He ran for the reception, overtaking everyone, and showed his badge to the receptionist, a young female armadillo.

“Good morning, ZPD, I need to talk to Doctor Carter please”

“Alright, I’m calling him, please have a seat right there” she said while showing the waiting room.

He decided not to make the whole queue wait anymore and moved to the room. 

He heavily dropped on the chair and looked straight at the wall in front of him during several minutes. His gaze didn't show any emotions and seemed completely empty.

His attention was quickly attracted by the TV screen right above, which was showing live news. ZNN’s anchormen: a Snow leopard and a moose had just started a special edition.

" Breaking news: we’re talking about the Rainforest district’s attack. The assault started at about 10 AM this morning on the district’s eastern beltway.

At that time, it was completely congested. During a Police inspection, a black van overtook the vehicle lane until it arrived at the officers level. It then stopped and the driver: a black dressed wolf, opened fire on the police before fleeing, the vehicle’s explosion followed.

As for now, no deaths have been reported but two police officers: Lieutenant Judy Hopps and Officer Nicholas Wilde were wounded during the assault.

According to our latest information, it seems that they still are in critical condition. The road will be closed until further notice and the mayor will address the populace in the evening course.”

Bogo stopped looking at the TV. While lowering his head, he saw Doctor Carter, a koala who was rushing into the waiting room. He immediately stood up to meet him.

“Hello Doctor, I caught up on my officers’ news”

“Hello chief, I know, please come with me, we’ll be tranquil in my office”

As soon as the doctor said these last words, both of them crossed the impeded hallways of the department until they arrived in the office. The chief sat up while the doctor closed the blinds of the glass wall which was overlooking the hallway.

“How are you guys doing with all that agitation?” started the doc while also sitting down

“We’re managing it but the media is starting to harass us “ he paused

“How are they doing doctor?”

The doctor got back to the point.

“Oh sorry, Excuse me for getting of track”

He took a folder off his desk

“Lieutenant Hopps had a panic attack, apart from that, no major injury. She’s stable now and should quickly recover. However, Officer Wilde's condition is more concerning; he’s still unconscious and is treated in intensive care.”

After a moment of hesitation, Bogo resumed with a quiet tone:

“Well, what do I do now?” 

“The experience was particularly shocking for everyone; I’ll ask the hospital for a psychological support unit at the police station, you should also give you and your officers some time off.”

Bogo nodded

The phone rang; Carter picked up and had a really short conversation

“Chief….”

His tone was serious, his face partially desolated

“ ……Officer Nicholas Piberius Wilde is deceased.“


	3. The fox sleeps tonight

Nature was peaceful, only a slight marine breeze animated the central cemetery.

A group in mourning clothes was gathered around Nick’s Wilde grave. Among that group, we could see his colleagues but also some of his friends like Finnick, his faithful associate. Judy was also here but was only a shadow of her former self. The dark rings under her eyes were clearly visible, her fur had slightly faded and her ears were lowered.

The minute of silence ended and the police orchestra played Taps and the national anthem.

All the officers paid tribute to their fallen partner

The atmosphere was unbearable, it seemed everybody was about to cry but no one did, probably as a mark of respect to their lost friend.

Once the ceremony ended, Judy said goodbye to all the guests until she was alone in front of her partner’s gravestone: 

Nicholas P. Wilde

1984-2018

Judy knelt and stood still for multiple minutes.

Finally, with a feverish voice, she started

“Hi Nick…..”

She stopped for a moment, trying to hold back her sobs

“I hope you’re doing good where you are…..That you don’t miss my horrible bunny behavior” She smiled while rolling her eyes 

“But you…….”

She stopped in the middle of her sentence, not sure anymore of what to say

“I dunno what to do, what to say, nothing”

She lowered her head

“What would you do if you were here?” she resumed while looking at the tombstone, tears within the eyes.

A memory came back to her mind:

It was one year ago, during the night. They had a dangerous mission: a female hyena had taken her partner hostage. She was holding him with her left arm around his neck while pointing a 9mm pistol on his temple.

Judy and Nick were the closest patrol; they had to negotiate with the shooter who seemed in a rage, ready to shoot at any moment.The acolytes were hidden behind the vehicle

“Madam, release him!” ordered Judy while pointing the hyena with her weapon.

“That’s not your problem! Go away!”

Unexpectedly, Nick started to move towards the hyena who immediately replied by pointing him with her gun.

“I told you to go away!” she yelled

“Nick, what the heck are you doing?!”Judy whisper-shouted

The fox didn’t answer and stopped half-way between the car and the aggressor.

“Hey, come one….come on; let’s calm down” declared the fox “‘I’m not armed”

He showed his empty holster.

He was calm as usual and sounded understanding

“What do you blame this guy for?”

She kept pointing the gun at him but was on the edge of crying.

“He….He abandoned me! Betrayed me! He manipulated me to earn money and he lets me down like that!” she yelled

She told him her whole story. He listened without interrupting her, without any judgment.

He then answered naturally, in the same way he would tell a friend.

“So you want to mess up your life for this poor wretch? He doesn’t deserve you; you’d only help him by going to jail.” 

“Please, trust me, even though I’m a fox” he joked “Drop this weapon and everything will be OK” he finished

He was fortifying, with a benevolent smile.

That seemed to work, the hyena slowly lowered her weapon.

However, Judy made a sudden movement which scared the mammal; Surprised, she shot Judy who then fell on the ground. 

The deafening sound chocked the hyena, she dropped her weapon.

“I…..I’m sorry” she told Nick.

The fox was looking at her with a mix of terror and anger in his eyes.

He didn’t wait and ran to the bunny

“JUDY!” he screamed

Other officers took hold of the situation

“Judy? You OK?!” He yelled again

“I’m alright…..I’m OK” she moaned while trying to stand up

The bullet had only scraped her bullet proof vest

“You scared me to death!”

A few minutes later, Judy was sitting at the rear of an ambulance. Nick passed by and stopped in front of Judy

“How do you feel? "

"I’m good Nick, don’t worry, I wasn’t even touched” she smiled

The fox smiled in return and stoop still for a few minutes.

He resumed:

"Well, carrots, sorry to leave you but I’m exhausted and I have to work tomorrow. I’ll go home anytime soon: just need to write my report and have some sleep. Have a good night”

"Nick, wait! " called Judy as the fox started to move away. “Take a seat, only 5 minutes” 

Nick came and sat down next to Judy.

“This accident made me realize one thing: What would happen if I die? Or if you die? It obsesses me” she resumed with a sad tone, ears lowered.

Nick stood up and kneeled in front of his colleague

“Hey Judy, it’s not going to happen anytime soon, we’re cautious and such occasions are really rare. If such thing happen, if you….I’d personally be floored by pain but I will survive, I’ll resume my life knowing you’re still there somewhere” he smiled

“And if I ….Then keep going, live your dream, keep protecting Zootopia and its peoples, keep going with the cases. Do not let you go. Even posthumously I’d like to see you happy and do what you want. Listen to your heart and never let anyone see that they got to you.”

Judy smiled and hugged his partner

“Who wants a little tonic?” Proposed a joyful Nick while hanging out a packet of candies

"Give me that! " cried Judy, from now on in a happy mood, as if anxiety had totally faded away

Judy got out of her reverie and looked back at the gravestone.

“I’ll figure out what happened, why they did that to you……Whatever it takes, even if it takes days or years” she resumed between two sobs.

“It’s been months I ask me that same question, I’ve been stuck but today, and whatever pain could it cause, I’ll find what the truth is”

She realized she has been saying out loud these last words. She stood up to leave but stopped an instant.

She turned around and took a last gaze at the grave

“Good night Nick” she smiled

On her way back to the entrance, she heard a cracking noise, it came from the bushes. She couldn’t stop herself from taking a look. 

All of a sudden, a fox wearing a black suit got out of the bushes.

Judy jumped.

He was flaxen-haired and his light blue eyes emphasized his face. Apart from that, he looked like Nick: same height, same morphology and same smile.

“Oh ! Excuse me ! Did I scare You ?"

"No no! It’s OK, sorry " she smiled, half-joking “What are you doing?”

“I know that’s quite unusual but you won’t actually believe it! I was visiting my grandmother’s tomb when, clumsy as I am, I fell in these!” He made fun of himself.

Judy seemed satisfied by this rather funny explanation.

She remained silent.

“You OK?” he timidly asked

She regained control of herself, realizing she had stared at him for a few minutes.

“Uh….yeah….yeah, I’m OK. Sorry, had a ruth day.”

“I see, hope you’ll get better soon” he smiled before ending the conversation:

“Have a good evening, sorry again”

He moved away with determination, Judy watched him going away. She didn’t know why but that fox had particularly caught her attention.

She looked around and saw a compass laying on the ground, two steps away from the bushes. It probably belonged to the fox.

She looked for him but he had already disappeared.

She grabbed the object.

It was a golden compass, the lid was patent: Judy could see her reflect on it. A side ring could be used to attach it.

She felt like opening it but told herself not to:

"I have to leave it in the lost property office, I can’t open it”

But the temptation was too great and the desire to know more about that fox prioritized over good manners: she opened it.

At that moment, a cocker approached her.

Judy jumped and hid the compass in her pocket.

It was a female, her fur was black with the exception of a white stripe from the top of her head to her muzzle. Her eyes where a magnificent brown. She was wearing a white t-shirt, a leather jacket and black jeans.

She came up to her, smiling:

“Hello……You’re Judy Hopps, right?”

“Yes, why is it for?”

“Sorry for not Introducing myself: Amy Miller” She offered her paw

Judy and Amy shacked hands

“I’m a private investigator; Chief Bogo told me I could find you here”

She paused in order to see if Judy had an answer but she only nodded.

Amy took a deep breath, as if she needed it to concentrate on her next sentence

“I can investigate on Nicholas Wilde’s disappearance”

The proposition seemed to wake Judy up again.

“Oh no, no……It won’t be necessary, you must have many important cases…..”

“You lost a loved one Judy” replied Miller with an emphatic tone.

She gently grabbed Judy’s paws.

“I know that’s very hard: trying to understand is painful but not knowing the truth isn’t better, it’s a vicious cycle”

She slowly released the bunny.

Judy smiled in return

"That’s really kind of you, but that really won’t be necessary, I’m good "

“Alright” she calmly replied

She took her wallet

"I’ll leave you my coordinates, don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything" she smiled “My sincere condolences”

“Thank you, have a nice day” Judy smiled while taking the card.

Miller slowly withdraw with a comforting smile.

Once she was out of sight, Judy took back the compass in her pocket and opened it:

It was rustic and looked like the conquistadors’ ones. It could have belonged to an explorer.

She accidentally unscrewed the ring but what it revealed was interesting: It was a key to remove the cavity containing the compass’ hand. Judy removed it and discovered a small microphone and a micro SD card

“What does that mean?” she asked herself

She put everything back into place and looked at the back of the lid, she could see two initials: P.Wolson

She closed the compass and solemnly declared:

“Mr Wolson, I think our roads are going to cross again”


	4. Dr. Wolson

Sahara Square, 3 pm. 

A blond fox calmly walks in the street, carrying a leather bag in his paw. He’s wearing a blue checked shirt, a denim jacket and blue jeans. He also sports a cowboy hat that makes him look like some Far West guy and protects his eyes with orange tinted sunglasses.

After a few minutes’ walk, he entered a bar. The establishment, relatively small, was yet fully occupied by customers. The atmosphere was calm and only piano music completed the brouhaha of the brewery. This music was quite famous since it was directly taken from a bar scene of a well known movie. 

He approached the counter, removing his sunglasses to show his light blue eyes and called the bartender. “Hey Jimmy !” he smiled

The bartender, a suricate, immediately looked up from the glasses he was busy drying. 

His face lit up.

“Peter ! it’s been ages ! What brings you here ?”

“Oh, business, you know…”

“I see, do you want something ?”

“Maybe after…” he stopped, checking out the surroundings before resuming.

He lowered his voice.

“Gotta see…..my 22” he winked 

Understanding the message, the suricate smiled back.

“I’ll look for him, take a seat for a while”

Jim went to the staff area: it was a set of stairs going down, probably to the basement. 

The fox seated in front of the counter and put his sunglasses away. He removed his hat and put it on his knees. 

He observed the pianist frantically playing. The fox clearly enjoyed the song as he was marking the beat by some slight head movements

Jim came back with a Grizzly from the underground room. Peter quickly stood up and approached him.

They shook hands.

“Good afternoon Mr Brown” started the Fox

“Good afternoon Mr Wolson, this way please” he proposed while indicating the stairs from which he came from

They went down, leaving Jim alone behind the counter, then entered a relatively dark room. There was only one cellar window near the ceiling and an incandescent light bulb to illuminate the whole area. 

Apart from that, it was a well equipped apartment with a kitchen, a living room and a bedroom. All that in open space.

It looked like a slightly shabby apartment but it was largely possible to live. 

“Over here” Brown called back while pointing the bed in which a tabby cat was laying, visibly in bad shape

“Well, Hello Sir “ started Peter while opening his bag in order to take latex gloves that he put on.

“H….Hello” weakly answered the cat, half conscious, as if he was paralysed by pain.

“So, i know i might get myself in trouble but i need to know what your guy did, quite useful to establish a diagnosis” 

The fox turned around to ask the bear, who seemed emotionless.

“Medical confidentiality” he smiled

Mr Brown smiled back.

“He had to retrieve underwater merchandise, in the harbor. Everything went well except that the cops saw him: he had to rush out and run to escape them. However, he fell in some stairs and now he’s saying his right arm is hurting as heck. Plus his back is painful and he feels intense itching” 

“Alright, let’s take a look” resumed Peter

The fox examined the cat’s arm. palpating it in order to figure out what that was. The cat grumbled in pain as Peter approached the shoulder.

After a few seconds, the fox declared:

“That’s not a fracture, it’s a luxation. I can put his arm back into place but I need some help.

As the fox pronounced these last words, Brown whistled.

Three wolves entered the room. 

“Give him a hand” he ordered them on a calm tone

They listened to Peter’s indications about how to stabilize the injured mammal. He pulled the cat’s arm out 90° ”. 

He calmly told the cat:

“I’ll count ‘till 3...1….” He suddenly pulled the arm, in a slow but firm way. 

The cat screamed in pain.

He kept going until a skeletal snap could be heard, thus indicating a successful maneuver.

The fox checked if everything was back into place then put the arm into its original position. 

“Perfect, he’ll have to avoid moving it for some days and he may also consider consulting for physiotherapy.

“OK, and what about the rest ?” asked Brown.

“If I understood everything correctly, this gentleman might have forgotten something during his scuba diving session.” 

The fox turned back to the patient with a slightly mocking attitude, brazenly smiling and indicating by raised eyebrows he wanted an answer

“Decompression…….stops?” feebly answered the cat

“EXACTLY ! “ exclaimed Peter. 

He started his demonstration, walking around in circles and tempoing his story by paws and head motions.

“Unlike what people usually think, there’s not only oxygen in scuba tanks but air which is largely composed of nitrogen. Usually, it’s evacuated with exhale. But underwater, because of pressure, it tends to enter the blood and stay there because it’s unused by organs. However, what Henry’s law tells us is that a gas’s volume depends on its pressure: The greater the pressure is, the smaller the volume is.”

The bear seemed desperate with this scientific demonstration of which he didn’t understand anything. 

“It basically means that the nitrogen accumulated in your blood loosened while you were coming back to the surface. Bubbles formed and obstructed your blood vessels. It causes itching, lumbar pain and weakness.Classic decompression accident.”

“Try to follow the stops next time…” Peter finished, kindly smiling this time. 

The cat didn’t answer but tried a slight smile to indicate he had understood.

“So, how do we treat him then ?” Asked Brown.

“I can’t really treat him like that, unless his mission was to steal a decompression chamber” joked Peter.

“You got to bring him to a hospital, but don’t worry, i know someone who doesn’t really care about...ethics.”

“Perfect !” smiled the bear. 

He sat down at the table and took his checkbook.

“If I had known sooner that these cliches were erroneous, i would have more fox friends” he laughed.

The blond fox smiled.

Some minutes later, the two got out of the basement.

“Here’s the contact, good luck for the future.”

Peter handed a piece of paper to the bear.

“Thank you very much Peter, keep it up.“

They shook hands. 

Wolson got back to the counter where Jim was waiting for him while the bear went back to his underground facility.

“Lemonade please!” he launched, paw raised.

It took Jim an instant to grab the beverage in the counter’s fridge and uncap it.

“Here we go Sir !” He laughed, rather proud of his performance. “Sooo, how’s life ? Work, family, friends” he joked

“Quite peaceful these days, but I get by.” Peter smiled, sipping his drink. “And ya?”

“I’m good, more or less at least. Thankfully I'm only on a provisional job, as you probably know I'm not the greatest enthusiast when it comes to work.” 

“That’s the least we could say.” snigered Peter

“I should resume my usual activities when the holidays will be over.” 

“So you decided you’d listen to me this time, you looked for a job and Brown hired you. Always me that pushes you to do things!” smiled the canin

Caught off guard, the suricate jokingly tried to justify himself.

“Well…….there’s that and probably the few bills i haven’t paid for 6 months but…...whatever….” 

As an uncomfortable situation began, Jim preferred to change the subject. 

“Anyway, It just came to my mind, what do think of some video game soirée someday, maybe this week ? Like in the good old days !”

The suricate was really enthusiastic about this idea. Peter finished his drink before replying.

“Unfortunately, i’m on a serious case, lots of work!”

“Mmmmm, interesting, what’s that case? I’m curious.” 

He bent forward, landing his elbows on the counter and putting his head on his joined paws. Making the same face a kid would make to an adult who tried to hide him some information.

Peter smiled back.

“Can’t really say much about it, got to retrieve somebody. Don’t tell anyone please” He whispered.

“Alrighty then, so i guess i’ll put my plans back to a next time” 

The fox put a 10 dollar bill on the counter and stood up, putting his hat back on his head.

“Well, sorry my friend, gotta go. I’ll call you anytime soon!”

“Oki doki, have a nice day and thanks for the tip!” 

The fox left the bar, the sun had already lowered in the sky, which gave the district some cooler shadow zones for the first time in the day, even though the temperature was still high.

The fox joined one of these more comfortable zones, and took a look at his watch: 4 pm.

“Well, time flies.“ he exclaimed.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The police car was circling around Sahara Square, it was 4 pm. A dull and ordinary afternoon for Judy.

She was driving slowly, looking for any infraction she could find. Her behavior, however was different: she was smiling but that wasn’t happiness, more like a mix of determination and sadism. Fangmeyer was in the passenger seat, visibly way less comfortable than Judy. Whenever she turned her head in his direction, he avoided visual contact.

After some long minutes of silence, he finally decided to take the floor

“Judy…..?”

“Yeah ?” She cheerfully answered 

“You know…..I don’t have any idea of how it feels to go through what you’re living, and i’m supporting you no matter what, Bogo partnered us up together ‘cause he doesn’t want you to be alone and I'm ok with that…..”

Judy seemed to lose patience, her gaze at him made the tiger feel uncomfortable so he came to the essential :

“I….you seem…….different, you’re not the Judy we’ve been used to. You seem obstinate to arrest mammals. You issued a ticket for speeding because someone was only 2 km/h above the limit and ,as he protested, you gave him another fine for failure to comply. Don’t you think it’s a little…...excessive ?”

“He broke the law, it’s our duty to make everyone respect it in order to protect the citizens, he could have caused an accident….” 

“In addition to that, you’re stubbornly sticking to Sahara Square, we’ve been here since 9 am. Isn’t the city larger than that ?!” The big cat’s shyness rapidly turned itself into irritation.

“It’s our sector, I ain’t seeing any problem” She pondered for a bit

“If you want us to stop there’s a restaurant right there” 

She showed a station-service a few hundred meters ahead of them

She parked and Fangmeyer got out, making sure to stretch himself with a long yawn. 

“You want anything ?” he asked

“A coffee will do”

Now being alone in front of the wheel, she sighed. Landing her elbow against the window and sustaining her head with her paw. She looked outside.

Judy didn’t mind this familiar district nor the colors of the late afternoon but was more interested by the coming and going of the inhabitants.

Suddenly, one of them drew her attention: a blond fox who seemed familiar was walking in the shade of the buildings. She took a closer look: no doubt, it was the exact same fox she had met two days ago, at the cemetery.

She seemed to light up and took off at full throttle.

While going backwards, she cut in front of a van whose driver honked.

“Did you find your license in a bag of chips ?!” He yelled, stretching out of his window.

“I’ll come back for the report !” she insolently launched.

Meanwhile ,Fangmeyer was exiting the building with coffees, crossing the road between the entrance and the parking lot. Unfortunately for him, he was in Judy’s way. With bulging eyes, he screamed and threw himself in the bushes by the side of the road.

“JUDY !" he angrily yelled

Judy giggled, she reached the road and caught up with the fox. She discreetly followed him for some minutes, waiting for the best time to strike.

As they approached a larger sidewalk, Judy decided it was time. She matched level with the fox.

“Hello, Mr. Wolson !”

Surprised, the fox turned immediately to the police vehicle. He smiled

“Hey ! we’ve seen each other already, didn’t we?” he started while removing his glasses.

“We met each other at the cemetery two days ago”

“Oh ! yeah, what was I thinking” he joked “Can i do anything for you ?”

“You lost something the other day, I’m here to give it back to you” she smiled

“My compass !” he exclaimed, seeming happy now. “Isn’t it?”

She nodded and stopped along the sidewalk, left the vehicle and handed him his personal effect.

“Thank you very much! Officer?”

“Hopps, lieutenant Hopps.”

“Thank you lieutenant, if you knew how important this is to me, comes from family and might come in handy” he slightly giggled

The bunny seemed more determined than relaxed, which was visible paticulary visible with her sadistic smile.

“May I see your ID, please?” she resumed.

“Excuse me ?” the fox answered, surprised by this unexpected question.

“Your ID card,“ she asked again, impatient.

The fox’s lack of understanding made him totally lose his good humor. He fulfilled Judy’s demand though.

She took a look at the card then declared, sure of herself.

“Well, Mr Peter Wolson, you are under arrest!”

“Huh !…..and for what ?” he exclaimed, spreading his arms. 

“Privacy violation” she smiled “please turn around and show me your paws”

Wolson burst out laughing which displeased the bunny a bit

“Really?” he tried to calm himself. “I mean..do you have any proof?”

“Yeah, your compass contains a microphone and everything necessary to throw yourself in jail for the next few months at least.”

He laughed even harder:

“Come on !...... that’s ridiculous !” He took some time to calm down before replying sarcastically.

“You know, I can sue you for false accusation, my dear.”

“Don’t call me _my dear_ and give me your paws.”

The fox finally complied, he removed his hat, giving it to the police officer, but didn’t lose his sarcastic smile.

“You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law” she said while cuffing him.

“You’re committing an error lieutenant.” 

“I don’t think so!” she sarcastically smiled, imitating the suspect’s behavior.

She brought him to the back of the car then took the wheel in the direction of the police station.

The doctor was sitting in the middle of the back bench seat, handcuffed and separated from Judy by the grating in between the front and back benches of the car. The ride had been silent for some minutes.

It was the canine who broke the silence.

“So...tell me, are you sure you’re arresting me for these false accusations?”

She could have remained silent and not answer this question but she was patient enough so she let herself go with the flow.

“Well yes, why not ?”

“‘because i think you may be having a mental block on me,” he smiled

In front of such absurdity, she bursted out laughing.

“A _mental block_?!” she exclaimed “You know, i’ve heard better defence attempts !”

“I’m really serious lieutenant, and i have some good reasons to think so.”

Judy seemed surprised but ,in the end, her curiosity won and she decided to listen to this mammal's insane theory.

“So what’s your theory inspector?” she smiled.

“Well, first, we randomly meet each other in a cemestry and two days later you arrest me for some unknown crime i might have committed.”

“You’re the only one to blame here, you spied on me and i got you, no problem.”

“You need to step back from the problem to understand the thing: First, you stared at me for quite some time. The thing is that every mammal hates being stared at, or looked at another for too long. It’s instinctive, it makes everyone feel uncomfortable, would that be you or the mammal you’re looking at. It can also be perceived as a threat for many species. Therefor, I have good reasons to think that this wasn’t only a small tiredness that made you maintain this eye contact. Unless you find me really attractive or like blond furs, it’s really likely you made a mental block : We animals can have a mental block for two main reasons. First: we find the other person attractive or pretty, we want to learn new things about him or her, it’s the case for good friends or for...you know….. relationships. Second: If there is a resemblance between the stranger we’re looking at and a known person. This resemblance puts doubt and so we instinctively keep looking to find other similarities and differences. All that in order to see if there’s a link between those two. Sometimes it brings reassurance but sometimes it could bring pain if the acquaintance is missing” 

Judy seemed to lose all her patience with this explanation.

The fox continued: “In general, people who see others lose something try to bring them back to their owners. However, that’s not what you did, you retrieved my compass and took a look inside, eventually sticking your nose into it. That’s what we usually call robbery and privacy violation,” he smiled.

He paused for a bit, waiting for an eventual answer from the bunny but only silence filled the atmosphere.

“I’m not judging you for that, but don’t you think your reaction was…... strange ? Maybe some kind of irrational vengeance?”

“You’re insane Mr. Wolson !” Judy tried on a serious tone. “I was really tired, a little bit off the ground, it’s not the first time it happened to me or other people, I have many examples like that.” 

“Maybe but, trust me, your environment tells way more things about you.”

Surprised, Judy manifested her misunderstanding

“Excuse me?”

“Do you know what the science of deduction is?” asked Peter

The fox resumed before the bunny could have any time to answer.

“We can learn many things about people thanks to the observation of their physical and environmental characteristics. Here’s an example: This vehicle is yours, why’s that? Well because you’re comfortable, you have a smooth and relaxed driving style which means you know your car and master it. This exact same car is….well…...messy and a little bit dirty: some dust, dirt, a little bit of water here and there. Not to mention what i see poking out of the glovebox: maybe some lunch leftovers. So either you don’t mind dirtiness or you overlooked cleaning. I opt for this last option. We usually overlook cleaning for two reasons: if we’re lazy or if something prevents us, more or less, from doing it. If i consider all the efforts you put into your research to find me, i think it’s more like the second option."

He paused for a bit, maybe to let the bunny absorb all the information he had just threw at her.

"Let’s talk about you now: you have dark rings around your eyes indicating insomnia, you either have a disease or you have something that prevents you from sleeping correctly. You’re tiredness seems to affect you quite harshly so i don’t think it’s something you’ve been used to. Thus i think it’s not a disease. Your fur faded a bit, indicating vitamins D and B3 deficiencies. Maybe you weren’t going outside much or didn’t ate correctly for the past few months. Might also indicate a physiological condition but still quite recent considering that the fading isn’t that important. Your uniform is poorly iron, which is surprising for a police officer and even more for a lieutenant. They need to look irreproachable. It's a symbol. You overlooked it so there's gotta be a problem. I can also see a little pill box and, trust me I'm a doctor,these are antidepressants : And here we go: everything's starting to line up: your negligences, your health are depressive symptoms. The reason? Probably the loss of someone since I met you in a cemetery. Probably someone who looked like me since you had a mental blockade. All that might have called back some emotions and lead to some kind of revenge desire…explaining this arrest"

"Shut up !" Cried Judy, now angry. "Just...shut up" she repeated softly but on the edge of crying.

The fox, joyful one instant ago, now seemed ashamed by what he had just said. His ears lowered back on his head, he now avoided eye contact and preferred to look outside.

The trip continued quietly, no one talked again until they arrived at the police station.

  
  
  
  
  
  



	5. Rooting it out

“ You have the right to an attorney ” Judy told Peter.

The fox was sitting in front a large metallic table. The interrogation room was quite large, well illuminated by a neon light and a large barred window behind him. The table was in the middle of the room, surrounded by some basic interrogation room material: one wall was a large tinted window: Obviously the control room where some other cops were looking at what he was doing. The wall in front of him contained a large white board. Next to it was a desk with some files, a computer and his compass.

“That won’t be necessary” he calmly answered, emotionless. “So are you going to show me your  _ proofs _ ?” he mimicked apostrophes with his fingers as he said this last word.

“Yeah, I’m just waiting for my boss so I can prove that I’m not insane” She sarcastically smiled “I’m gonna look for him.” 

Judy exited the room and looked for Bogo through the reception hall. The Buffalo was exiting his office, up to his usual work. As he went down the stairs, she ran for him.

“Chief ! I need your help…” she launched while running

“Hopps, we gotta talk “ Bogo calmly answered with the tone he usually uses when he’s unsatisfied 

“Please, i have something more important…”

“Me too“ he duly answered 

“Please..” She insisted, making one of these faces no one could resist, even more when it was a bunny. After some instants of resistance, Bogo finally gave up. 

“Alright” he sighted “That’s only because you saved the city once”

“Great !” she exclaimed “You may know who I arrested”

“Well…yes…...the circumstances made me know”

They entered the interrogation room. Bogo stayed near the door while Judy approached the computer

“So…. Mr Wolson, you’re here because you’re accused of privacy violation, here’s what I got to justify your arrest”

She sat down in front of the fox and opened the compass the same way she did two days ago, showing the spying material.

“How do you explain that?”

“There’s a…microphone and an…SD card ? Not much different from your cell phone” he calmly answered.

“In a compass? That’s quite surprising, don’t you think?” 

“If you knew what modern technology could do, you’d be surprised!” he smiled 

“Well, as you’re still sceptical, it’s time to show you what cannot be denied” she smiled

She went to the desk, removed the SD card and plugged it to the computer. Bogo approached the screen.

“See! There are files on it” she said as she turned the screen for the fox to see it.

“And?....” He visibly showed his scepticism

“Let’s open it, shall we?” Judy exclaimed

She opened the first file while looking at the fox with a scornful smile.

But instead of any illegal recordings, the audio played… the Orchestral Symphony?

Judy was so surprised she almost drowned in her own saliva. Her smile and self confidence instantly turned into shame, as her bulging eyes showed her surprise

The fox smiled again, visibly enjoying the tune

  
  


“ _ Les Toreadors …..  _ don’t you like?” He resumed “What you missed was probably that, there’s also speakers underneath the SD card. Did music ever harmed someone ?”

Bogo took a look at the compass: a little speaker was visible below the card’s attachment point.

“Wait…There was THAT file! I saw it! I’m not insane!” Judy almost screamed while searching through all of the files. There was, however, nothing more than the ones with music..

The fox sighed.

“I use this compass to listen to music from time to time. Some of them were my grandmother’s favorites so I brought it to make her listen to these. It probably fallen out of my pocket when I fell into the bushes”” 

Bogo looked at Judy who seemed panicked. He was angry, like he always is when his officers don’t do their job correctly.

“Wait…Chief, trust me…” Judy begged.

“In my Office, Hopps.” He calmly ordered, before turning to the suspect. “Mr Wolson, I’m sorry for the inconvenience. You’re free…”

“WHAT!?” Judy screamed in shock

“In. my. office. Hopps!” he asked again, this time more aggressively.

“...we’re sorry for the way you’ve been treated, someone will come here in a matter of minutes to fill up the paperwork” he added

“Finally!” Peter exclaimed

Bogo exited and moved towards his office. Judy was frenetic, almost running next to Bogo who seemed not to listen to her. 

“Chief! I’m not insane! He tricked me! The file was there!”

“Hopps…”

“You got to believe me, have I ever lied to you?!”

“HOPPS!” Bogo screamed

Judy immediately stopped after this second recall.

Upon they’re installation in Bogo’s office, The Chief started 

“So…you abandoned your post and your partner, almost killed Fangmeyer and caused a traffic jam. All that in order to arrest someone you thought was doing something wrong, because he seemed strange when you saw him. In addition: there’s no proof! I can’t let that go Hopps.”

“Chief…you gotta trust me…”

“How could I ? Whatever happens, there’s no way for you to justify this arrestation. And I can’t see how you could have acquired these proofs without bending the rules. You’re lucky he didn’t press charges against you!”

“But…he defended himself with some kind of scientific demonstration to show that I’m depressed, isn’t that some proof he has something to reproach him ?!”

“Don’t you think he might be right?”

Bogo’s question felt like a stab in the heart for Judy

“He’s a doctor, he knows what he’s talking about. Maybe seeing a fox reminded you of  _ him _

and that made you curious. I don’t want to be rude, but maybe you should consider seeing a therapist.” 

he paused as Judy’s face was distorting.

“Listen… I don’t think you’re ready, you need more time for yourself, to heal. I’m giving you a break”

“No! please! I’m more than ready, I just need some time to get used to it !” Judy tried

“That’s an order, Hopps”

“Please Chief…I can’t…it’s the only thing I feel like doing…”

“Look - I understand that it's hard for you, because it’s also hard for me. My officer died on a duty and we all need to get used to it. We need time to accept that he’s no longer with us. Sending you onto vacation is not a thing that I feel like doing, but the truth is that you need time to heal and move on. And I can’t let you work until it’s done. Take care of yourself Hopps”

Judy slowly exited Bogo’s office. Ears lowered and visibly emotionless.

she went to the locker room, retrieved her stuff then slowly took the direction of the hall

She didn't take a look back on her way out of the building. She was walking under the sad look of her colleagues, including Clawhauser, who seemed to be the most affected by the news.

She disappeared in the afternoon’s last gleamings.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Judy was laying down on her bed, her apartment was dark and plunged into the deafening silence of the night. The few rays of light illuminating the room were coming from distant buildings. 

She looked at the ceiling, not knowing what to think about nor how to feel.

She was unaware of how long she had been like that. Probably long enough for her to ask herself that question, she turned her head to look at her alarm clock: 10 pm

“I’ve been here for 3 hours…..” she told herself “Gotta do something….”

She slowly got up and took a few steps, realizing that her uniform was laying on the ground

“Wait….did I do that ?” she asked herself, not even sure if she remembered correctly.

She put it away in her wardrobe and sat down at her desk, turning on her light. 

She stood still for a few minutes adapting to the new brightness of the room. Once she was able to see something, she took a look around. A messy desk, what a normal thing. She looked closer, trying to find interesting details she could focus on. 

Eventually, she saw a photo in one corner, she took a look at it: it was her and Nick doing a selfie. 

“Good old days...” she smiled, pausing for a bit. “but it’s over now…..” 

She sighted, turning the photograph around so that she couldn’t see this memory that felt painful to her.

Judy sagged in her seat but it wasn’t long before someone knocked on her door.

“Who the heck is that ?” she whispered to herself

Without further questions, she went to the door and opened it.

As she did that, she saw a rhino , who was wearing a black suit, standing in front of her apartments entrance

“Good evening Ma’am”

Instead of going through long introductions, she went straight to the point: “How can I help you sir?”

“I’m from the insurance company, and I think there’s a water leak in the corridor”

“Oh?”

“Would it be a bother you to ask you to step out and tell me if that’s from your apartment or a neighbor?”

Without answering, she stepped out of her apartment….it was a trap.

Two pigs jumped on her, grabbing her paws while the rhino tried to anesthetize her with a tissue, probably Chloroform. She tried to free herself but it seemed nearly impossible.

Suddenly, someone shouted

“Hey there! You creeps! Let her go!”

They instantly looked at the end of the corridor in which a medium sized animal in a black suit was standing. It covered the integrity of the mammal’s body, making it impossible to figure out what or who it was.

The Rhino, surprised, tried to anesthetize Judy even harder while one of the pigs was about to grab his gun.

“Ok then….” the mammal exclaimed while pulling out a tranquilizer pistol, he shot the Rhino, who fell on the ground seconds after. 

One of the porkers ran towards his boss. Judy took this opportunity to crush one of her kidnapper’s feet, eventually freeing herself from his arms.

The remaining armed mammal was about to shoot her but she blocked his arm and punched him in the stomach. The pig instantly bended forward, allowing Judy to perform an armlock. 

However the assailant who held her back seconds ago turned back towards her and she would soon be encircled.

“Over here!” the mysterious mammal shouted

Seeing that she wouldn’t stand a chance alone, she didn’t hesitate and ran in his direction 

As she was approaching him, he pulled out a revolver and shot in the wall near the assailants.

Once at the same level, they ran down the stairs as their enemies opened fire.

Judy was having a sprint, partially able to breath correctly, her mind was focused on one thing: Survival. 

Her savior seemed more lucid and tried the best he could to slow down the pursuers, knocking down some furniture he found in the way and trying to block the doors with some obstacles.

Once outside, Judy tried to clear her mind and think of where to go, but her savior was faster.

“Here!” he pointed at a van parked in between the sidewalk and the road.

They jumped in the vehicle, Judy taking the passenger seat, and got off to a flying start. It took only a minute for them to lose their persecutors.

Judy took a deep and long sigh, taking the time to recover her breath. 

“Who are you?“ she finally asked

The driver removed his balaclava, showing his identity.

Judy’s eyes seemed to exit their orbits 

“YOU?!” 

“Hello, my dear ! ” Peter smiled

“What the...?!” she didn’t complete her sentence and grabbed the revolver that Peter used minutes ago to help her escape.

“Do you really think I’m stupid enough to leave an armed weapon near you?” He teased

She dropped it and grabbed a pepper spray laying next to the pistol. She immediately pressed the button to try and gas the fox, but, surprisingly she sprayed herself.

“GOD DAMMIT !” she yelled, rubbing her eyes

“You may take a look at things before you use them!”

The spray, however, didn’t burn her eyes. It wasn’t pepper spray. She suddenly felt light, as if she was going away - She was slowly losing consciousness.

“Good night Lieutenant !” 

Once again, Judy couldn’t do anything to stay awake and she abandoned herself to the strong grab of sleep. 


	6. A New beginning

  
  
  
  


Judy slowly opened her eyes, having slept like a log it took her a second to realize it wasn't her bed she was in. No, this was a queen bed and a room she didn’t know at all. Judy tried to remember how she'd gotten into the room but it was useless. She didn't have any memories of what happened after that stupid fox . She pinched herself to check it wasn't a dream, it hurt which meant it wasn’t. The room was large. Definitely bigger than her apartment. In front of her was a desk, better organized than hers. To the left, a large wardrobe and chair with some of her stuff neatly folded on it: her pen and some clothes she’d worn yesterday night. On her right, a window whose old closed shutters failed to keep out the pleasant and warm rays of morning light 

She stood up and left the bed, retrieving her belongings before opening the door

The room she'd been in led straight into the main room of the apartment. It was an impressive size, and had quite a modern open floor plan with new appliances.The 

On one side a well equipped living room with a large TV, couches and a large patio door overlooking the endless desert of Sahara Square.

On the other was the open kitchen from which cooking noises came.

She stepped into the open space and approached the kitchen. A familiar blonde fox turned around, pausing the culinary task at hand and smiled at her.

“Morning ! how do you feel?” Peter asked as he returned to the hot stove.

Judy couldn’t help herself holding back her anger

“YOU………….KIDNAPPED ME !” she exclaimed

Peter however was surprisingly calm despite her outburst.

“I would say that I saved you from some dangerous aggressors and brought you to a safer place instead” He calmly responded.

“Just…..” She tried to organize her ideas in order to come up with a clear question.

“I know I’m not insane! Where are these audios! I listened to them before!” Judy looked at him with desperation.

“You mean these ?” The fox took his cell phone and hit play on an audio log.

It was her talking at the cemetery, both to Nick and herself

“THAT’S IT! How did you freaking manage to get them and make everyone think I’m insane ?!” Her temper rose.

“Come on! Don’t you know you can have some self deletable files ? After some time, poof! They disappear like magic, but it’s some science here!” he teased

“GOTCHA !” Judy exclaimed while pulling out her carrot pen

The fox laughed

"You know lieutenant, you’re really intelligent but at the same time very naive! -- First you’re on break for now then your little gadget needs batteries to work !” 

“What?” she checked her pen and he was right: nothing has been recorded

“Wonder who can be stupid enough to get caught by that!”

“How do you know?” she asked, still angry

“Know what?”

“That I’m on a break”

“When an employer see that an employee isn’t doing his tasks correctly and is also known to be in a depressive state, it is usually assumed that it’s linked so they give him a break”

“What do you want? Why would you want to organize all that for?” 

Peter’s attitude changed: he went from a mocking attitude to a serious one.

“I need your help.”

“My help?! Why didn’t you just ASK?!” 

“You would still be in danger and wouldn’t have had the time with your particularly demanding boss. My case wouldn’t have been as important for you and you wouldn’t do your normal job correctly”

“So you’re a detective now?! ”

“Not really, but I’m working on a particular case…..” He paused, trying to adapt what he was going to say to her. 

“I’m working on Nicholas Wilde disappearance.”

Judy completely froze, she kept looking at the fox in the eyes. His self confidence faded away.

“I mean….you knew him very well so I thought you could help me……”

The living bomb he had triggered exploded

“You won’t have any help from me!! Were it for Nick or for anything! “ Judy yelled.

She ran for the exit, brutally opened the door and slammed it behind her.

“I don’t need anyone!” she added.

Judy rushed towards the stairs, but she suddenly stopped before entering them. Everything came back to her: her lost job, Peter, the photo she saw yesterday, happy memories with Nick, his smile, his jokes... It overwhelmed her and some of his words came back to her.

“Do not let you go-

keep going-

I’d like to see you happy and do what you want. Listen to your heart and never let anyone see that they got to you.” 

Her head was full of contradictory thoughts, stuck between rage and sadness. She held her head as if it was about to explode. 

Judy punched the wall with all of her strength, eventually ending this internal conflict and fell on her knees. Emotion started to overwhelm her, some tears were about to leave her eyes.

After a few minutes of wall facing, totally emotionless, she finally took a look back at Peter’s door. 

That fox was keeping her attention, and she didn’t even know why anymore. For his resemblance with Nick? For his help? There was something she was sure about tough,she couldn’t keep going like that. She had to do something, and what was to come with her ordinary life was far from being interesting.

She stood up and slowly approached Peter’s door, staying still in front of it for a few instants, hesitating about what to do.

“Screw it” she whispered while finally knocking on the door.

She heard steps coming in. The fox seemed surprised when he opened the door. He looked more like a normal mammal being than the bad guy he had been the last few hours.

“You forgot anything?” He started

Judy was exhausted, she let everything go. 

“I lied……..I’m not fine…...and I need someone” Judy started to cry, the expression of months of suffering. That suffering that she had kept inside was now releasing.

“You….oh wait….are you alright?” 

Her head tilted forward, almost falling as her sobs became louder.

“I’m……….sorry” she tried to say.

“It’s fine, Come one in, you’ll be better” Peter answered with a comforting smile, 

They sat on one couch next to each other, Judy was now probably crying all the tears of her body. Between her sobs she tried to speak:

“I… it should have been me…!" She gestured 

"He was everything: my friend, my partner. ………………..The only one who believed in me when I first came here………"

"We did so many things and had so many to still do……."

"I can’t live without him ! And I'm so stupid to complain like that !” 

She buried her head between her paws, crying even harder

“Hey, easy there.It’s not a bad thing to cry.” Peter smiled, trying to comfort her"

She rose her head again, only to show him a miserable face.

“I can’t believe it happened… I dunno what to do, I’m so lost…”

“I’m here for you, might be the greatest stalker of all times but still have some heart” he teased.

Judy looked at her feet.

“One day…….he told me to live happy and do what i like…….even without him, but i can’t….”

“Then what do you want ?”

“I…..I dunno….” She paused but her memory of her promise to Nick at the cemetery came back. She couldn’t betray her lost friend.

“I want to know what happened……..but I don’t know if I have the strength….”

“From what I’ve seen you sure have the strength. I know by experience that losing someone is destructive……. “ 

He paused, seeming affected by what he said “...but what you have to tell you,is that life goes on…..even without him. You gotta do what you want.”

“I can’t do it myself, I don’t want to be alone anymore…..” she sighed.

“Here I am Ma’am ! In addition we have a common goal !”

“But….I arrested you, insulted you and almost broke your door while you just tried to protect me…and you still wanna help me ?……”

“If you knew how many times I’ve already been insulted….and I might have done things wrong a liiiiiiittle.”

Judy hugged him.

The fox seemed surprised as shown by his extended arms avoiding contact with the rabbit. But in the end, he hugged her back.

“Thank you” she whispered.

The fox smiled. 

“You can call me Peter.”

“Judy…”

They stayed like that for a few minutes before Judy finally let him go. As he slowly released her, he resumed.

“Now what do you think about eating a bit ? I made some carrots, even if it’s not that healthy for you bunnies”

"How did you know I like it….?.”

“Some Clichés appear to be true sometimes” Peter joked.

Judy smiled back.

It had already been several minutes since they had sit at the table. It was a quiet lunch, Judy was eating so fast that it made Peter’s eyes stay widely open in surprise. 

As he saw that the hungry bunny finished her plate, he regained all his seriousness.

“Soooooooooo, can you recount me what happened that day?”

Judy was hesitant for a bit but eventually overtook it.

“We were doing a control when that van go out of nowhere and his driver attacked us. After he hurt Nick, he jumped off the bridge and the vehicle exploded”

“Alright, do you know what’s the first step of any investigation ?” the fox winked

“Of course” 

They both declared in unison 

“Going back to the crime scene !” 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainforest District, 2 hours later: the beltway had been closed for nearly 2 month, the investigation was still going and reopening it would have been a great risk, even though it created major traffic jams in other parts of the city.

Judy and Peter crossed the yellow police line and approached the place where it all began. all the major clues’ location were marked down with white lanes.

Judy positioned herself at the different spots to show Peter what happened.

“So the car was here… he shot from over there, behind the van. Then ran away in that direction and jumped off the bridge around here” she pointed the spot where she remember seeing the wolf fleeing

The fox pondered for a bit, helding his muzzle. He approached the edge of the bridge.

“You told me he jumped from here ?” 

“Yeah”

He looked down during a few minutes while Judy looked for any other detail.

"Let’s try to do the same shall we! “ he smiled. 

Concentrated, the bunny didn’t paid much attention about what the fox said.

“Yeah sure…..Wait, what? NO!”

It was too late, the fox had already jumped.

She panikly ran to the edge to see a happy fox peacefully laying on the ground about 50 meters lower.

“Don’t leave me alone down here!”

“Just….How?!”

“Trust me, it’s safe!”

Judy hesitated quite some time considering the marvelous heights but eventually jumped too.

The dense foliage of tropical trees slowed her enough to softly land on leaves near the ground.

The standing fox smiled at her.

“That’s how our suspect escaped.”

He gave her a paw to stand up

“We gotta find other clues, unfortunately I don’t think there’s many things left between humidity and months of investigation,” Judy said while rubbing her clothes.

“The vehicle exploded right? I doubt there’s any debris left.” 

"Maybe...” She took a look around, searching for any sort of clue

After some time of intense research, she saw something piercing through some large leaves.

“Here!”

They removed the leaves, revealing a half buried car’s sliding door.

“Jackpot !” Peter exclaimed. He cleaned it a bit to reveal the bodywork’s color : a tinted black.

“According to my little knowledge of cars, this a is a van’s sliding door ! ” he teased 

“It’s the same color, gotta be it ! “ Judy exclaimed.

“Okay now, let’s take a closer look” He cleaned the rest of the door but when he revealed what was at the center, he froze. 

it was a central hexagon surrounded by six smaller triangles, all in white color. The interior of the star was as black as the body of the vehicule, making it appear empty.

At the center, still in white, the number 426. Behind the star, two tridents were visible, crossing each other like the pirate flags did. Finally, on the outside of the star, two letters were visible: G on the left and H on the right.

“What’s the problem?” Judy asked, worried by Peter’s reaction.

The fox now seemed scared. 

“Whatever happened…...It’s way deeper than we thought…..”

He looked around, more serious than ever

“We gotta move! I’ll explain later,” he quietly told her

They rushed back to the car, using a service ladder to come back on the bridge.

Once inside the car, Peter drove away quite quickly. 

“Soo what’s the matter ? “ Judy asked

The fox pondered for a bit, still driving

“This….is the logo of a gang,” he paused, “and by _gang_ I mean criminal organisation….It’s called……….. _Grittenhouse_ ” 

“So you think that organisation tried to kill both of us?”

“Maybe, but it’s surprising they used such methods to do that”

Judy sagged back in her seat.

“So what now? You know things about them?”

“Not really, a friend of mine can help us with that. However we need to confirm that hypothesis.”

“How?”

“We go to the hospital in which both of you were treated. I may not know much about them, but what I’m sure about is that they use special bullets for all their crimes.”

“Oh….” 

The fox tone of voice was different, as if he was doubting. Maybe he was scared or just concentrated on the road but it definitely triggered Judy’s attention.

“I also have a friend of mine in that hospital!” he smiled again, ending his discomfort.

“Oh, nice! A doctor?”

“Yeah! Where did you think I got my doctor’s license from?”

\---------------------------------------------------------

They entered the reception hall, it was a modern looking building, half futuristic with modern furnitures and decorating but also natural with tropical vegetation considering the district they were in. The combination of these opposed universes was yet really beautiful. In the middle of the room was the reception, all around it, multiple hallways led to all the different departments of the hospital. In between two corridors, behind the reception, a set of three elevators led to all the different levels.

Judy approached the reception but the fox kept going forward to the elevators

“Hey ! we can’t go see him like that, we’re visitors”

“Don't worry, we can ! we’re not simple visitors” he smiled 

Surprised, the bunny showed her misunderstanding 

“Come on bun bun !” he launched as he was already in the elevator

Realising she had stood still in the middle of the hall, she hurried in the elevator.

Once they were going up, the fox resumed.

“My friend is the head of the diagnosis department, however he sometimes has to help the emergencies one so that’s him that took care of Nick”

Judy stayed silent until the elevator’s doors opened to a long corridor with many staff passing by. They followed the flow for a bit until they arrived at the level of a larger corridor. On their right was just a wooden wall while on the left was a big room with large windows. Inside, some doctors seemed to talk. 

Peter suddenly entered the room, surprising a Siberian Husky who was writing something that looked like symptoms on a whiteboard. Three other doctors, a kangaroo, a hippo and a puma were sitting around a table, looking at a patient’s medical files.

“Hello Greg !”

The husky raised an eyebrow and looked at the fox before quickly turning around to his assistants. 

“Hey look ! another friend to help us” he ironically launched 

Peter let him go with the flow 

“What do we got ?”

The three doctors remained marble 

“Go ahead, he’s a doctor too” insisted Greg

As they still didn’t do anything, he became more insistent

“What are you waiting for ?! it’s a differential, someone’s dying !”

“female zebra 32 years old, aphasia attack” started the puma

“May be aneurysm or ischemic embolism stroke” answered the Kangaroo

“Or mad cow disease” completed the Hippo

“We should call it mad zebra then” Greg teased

“Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ?” the puma asked

“Could also be Wernicke's encephalopathy” tried Peter

The husky immediately answered

“Nope, Thiamin seem normal” 

“Sometimes results are false, you should rerun the blood test” the fox winked

The dog smiled :

“Alright, MRI for aneurysm and rerun the tests.” 

“So you trust him ? “ The Hippo asked

“No, I just want to make you lose your time and kill the patient !” 

Not answering their boss’ provocation, all three doctors left the room, leaving Greg and Peter alone.

Judy had stood on front of the door during the whole scene, not understanding anything.

“You need me right ?” Greg smiled

“A little bit yeah...even though you seem to have lots of fun

with your new patient.”

He smiled before resuming

“Who’s that little bunny waiting outside ? she’d better get out before she takes root !”

Hearing that they were talking about her, Judy came back from her reverie and stepped in

“Uh….Oh sorry..”

“Judy, here’s the doctor Gregory Rahouse” Peter told her

“Greg, here’s Judy Hopps, i think you heard some things about her, however I need to ask you some questions about Nicholas Wilde”

“You really think I remember all the patient I treated ?” 

“Of course you do” he smiled

“Right…” Greg admitted “Get in the office, need to seat for a bit !”

“Judy, If that doesn’t bother you, I’m gonna talk alone with Rahouse. You know…. medical stuff that’s annoying” he politely asked

The bunny didn’t hide her disappointment but she knew hearing the doctor’s perspective about Nick’s death was probably going to be hard to hear.

“Ok, I’ll stay there” 

“Great” he put his thumbs up and smiled, backwardly entering the office.

He closed the door behind him and took a seat in front of Rahouse’s desk

“So….what really happened ?”

“I tried to save him but he died ” He casually declared

“thanks captain but i’ll need more details”

The husky pondered for a bit, probably trying to remember 

“Well…….he entered coma soon after his admission, probably some critical internal lesions, heart failure occurred and the encephalogram showed no activity after 30 minutes. Death followed”

Peter showed his scepticism and landed his elbows on the desk. 

“You’re not telling me everything, what REALLY happened ?”

The medic didn’t answered

“It’s very important, Rahouse” Peter insisted, bending on Greg’s office

Greg’s face seemed serious for the first time of their whole rendez-vous

“Ok…….” He sighed

Judy was sitting in one of Rahouse assistant’s chair. waiting for the discussion to end.

It’d been already 10 minutes.

“So, why would they would like to kill us ? They tried to capture me but failed, it’s probably all linked. Did Nick did something wrong ? Is it something else ? Is it linked to Peter ?”

She barely finished her monologue than Peter left the office.

“Thanks, Greg see you asap, and try not to kill the patient !”

“Will try” he joked

Once back in the corridor, Judy couldn’t wait the fox’s answer.

“So ?”

“It’s confirmed to be _Grittenhouse_ ” he seriously said

“The bullets corresponded ?”

“Not only that they did but there’s more, a wolf was treated here for a broken arm after a fall. and guess where he came from”

“The road…..”

“Exactly”

“So what now ?”

“We go see another friend, he’ll help us get some infos” he smiled


	7. Grittenhouse

Peter and Judy arrived in front of a building, or at least what looked like one. Directly inserted into a desert cliff’s wall, it was more like a combination of traditional desert houses all linked together by stairs made of bamboos, it all looked like some kind of termite habitat. 

As the day was ending in Sahara square, they looked for Peter’s friend's apartment.

They got up to the third stage and walked during some minutes for Peter to find the right door to knock on, which he eventually did. 

A surprised suricate opened the door.

“Oh! Hey Peter ! you changed your mind ?”

“Hey, old friend! Nope, sorry. I’m not alone”

He stepped aside to let Judy gently wave at the suricate

Surprised by his friend’s company, Jim raised an eyebrow for a second before regaining his seriousness

“Hello, Miss” Jim politely started

He approached Peter’s ear and whispered to him

“Don’t tell me you guys are……”

Instantly choked, the fox gave him a nudge

“Noooo !” He whispered back

“What did he say ?” Judy asked

“Nothing……” Peter rolled his eyes

“Anyyyway, Need your help”

“About what ?”

“We should get in...for safety” the fox resumed as he looked around 

The suricate invited them inside, the apartment was a single room, dark and smaller than Peter’s one.

They sat on a couch for Peter to resume

“I need to know some things about…..Grittenhouse”

Jim seemed surprised as if that name triggered a special emotion

“Oh…” he pondered “you know it’s not that easy to have Infos…..”

The fox smiled 

“I knew I could count on you !”

“Hold on a sec! I didn’t say yes !” Jim protested

However, Peter’s mocking smile made him realize he had no power here. 

“Ok……” he sighed “let’s see”

He grabbed his laptop and started searching. They all stayed quiet during these long critical minutes, the atmosphere was heavy and awkward, neither Judy nor Peter had anything to say.

The suricate eventually ended this uncomfortable situation. 

“According to these slightly hacked Infos, the group was created in the ’50s to promote species equality by some…..questionable ways. Especially during the _great disruption_. More precisely, it recruits mammals who have been excluded from society because of their differences. They find a family and a job. The organization is apparently still active today, even though it has been relatively peaceful these last decades''

He paused

“Apparently, their last boss was Mr. Grittenhouse, third of that name. He left some years before his death in the late 90’. However, their current boss is still unknown, just like loads of their members. They almost got their new boss 5 years ago during a bank heist but he wasn’t with his minions during the arrest“

“Then why do you think they killed Nick ?” Judy asked Peter

“They what ?” Jim asked in confusion

“You remember the Rainforest district attack 2 months ago? She was in and they killed her partner, Nick Wilde” Peter explained

“Oh……” Jim hesitated about what to say but he eventually changed the subject 

“They have the means to organize such an attack but they never aimed at police officers, that’s troubling.”

“He….used to be a con artist so maybe he worked with them ?”

“Possibly….maybe he triggered them in some ways and they tried to have their revenge, but that feels weird considering them…..” Peter resumed

"How do you know that ?” Judy questioned 

“I..I mean…..considering what Jim just told us. They look welcoming towards their members so why would they do that ?” The fox awkwardly answered 

As another uncomfortable atmosphere was rising, the suricate resumed 

“I can try to seek some more Infos about that, dunno if I’ll find anything but I’ll let you know” 

“Ok, thank you bud, you’re saving my life.” Peter smiled “Next time, we’ll play all night I promise”

The suricate smiled back and escorted them to the exit.

The night had already fallen for quite some time, however, the full moon was so bright that it illuminated the desert in such a way that it made them feel like it was day.

They started to walk towards Peter’s van

“So what now? Think I’ll have to get back home and keep going on my own” Judy started

“Come on ! we’re a team, we’ll stay together until we figure out what happened, also coming back to your miserable apartment is dangerous. My home is yours! “

“Oh really? I don’t want to bother...”

“No prob” he smiled

They got in the vehicle and started driving towards Peter’s home.

“So if summarize the whole thing, the theory is that Nick was at one time more or less involved in Grittenhouse’s business. He did something wrong which justified his assassination.” Judy started

“yep”

“But why with such methods? And why did he try to kill me too ?”

“I don’t know if Jimmy finds stuff that may help.” he pondered a bit “Maybe they knew you could be an obstacle for them, that’s why they also tried to kidnap 

you the other night”

“Troubling but realistic, Do we have anything that would link the aggressors and them”

“Their van also had that sign…saw it when I came in”

“Oh….”

“For the method, it may be meant something else but I don’t have a clue.”

“Like what ?”

“I dunno, I really don’t. Even though I have a bad presentiment”

Silence filled the passenger compartment, Judy took this opportunity to ask a question she really wanted to.

“How did you know for yesterday’s night ?”

“Hmm ?”

“How did you figure out where I was and why did you come up there ?”

“I wanted to talk to you so…..I followed you”

“But why did you have all that material ?”

“I…..I had it all in the car…. When I saw their van...I equipped”

The fox’s answers obviously made him uncomfortable, it just didn’t seem natural for him.

Judy preferred not to continue the conversation and the rest of the drive remained silent. 

Once back in Peter’s apartment again, He broke the silence

“Ok so…..you can have a shower, a snack and go to bed in the bedroom, I’ll sleep on the couch”

“you know you can do what you want, it’s your home”

“You’re the guest” Peter gently smiled

\---------------------------------------------------

Judy woke up again, once again…..She thought the morning she’d been waiting for had finally arrived, however, when she opened one of the shutters she found nothing but the darkest obscurity of night. Disappointed, she looked at the alarm clock : 3 am

It wasn’t her first time walking up this night, she couldn't sleep, all these knew Infos overwhelmed her. She couldn’t stop thinking about all that, what would Nick do? Was all that linked with his past? Did she really know who he was? All these unanswerable questions that her mind tried to answer, still unsuccessfully. 

She decided to leave the bed and do something more productive. Anything could make her less bored than sleeping. As she approached the door, she heard some piano music coming from the living room. 

Surprised by this nocturnal tune, she quietly opened the door and bent in to see Peter playing in front of the window. 

The tune was calm and classic, Probably a way for Peter to relax. She seemed to enjoy it as well.

Judy slowly approached, making sure not to interrupt him but one of her ankles snapped as she tried not to make noise. The fox jumped in surprise at the very end of his morceau.

“Oh ! sorry !” Judy exclaimed, embarrassed 

“Did I wake you up ?” He replied, probably as embarrassed as she was

“No no, just can’t sleep. You ok ?” 

“yeah……..sure” 

The fox sounded different, a mix of sadness and tiredness.

Judy wanted to question him about his state but she eventually started with a simpler one.

“What’s that song ?”

“Some Russian piece, they played it during the last war. I like to play it when I don’t feel good, I feel like the soldiers back then”

She approached, ears lowered and continued with a gentle tone

“What’s going on ?”

“That’s not interesting” Peter turned back to the piano, obviously avoiding eye contact.

Judy, who now knew for sure something was wrong, gently sit next to him on the same chair

“You listened to me so I can listen to you as well” She softly told him “Are you alone?”

That unusual question triggered Peter who turned back to her in surprise

“ What do you mean? I’m a fox, we live alone, why such a question?”

“I mean, you have friends right ?” She corrected

The fox hesitated as if he was thinking about his answer.

“Yeah…..some……...like Jim or Greg”

He suddenly sighed with something that sounded like an early sob

“I………used to know someone else, a childhood and probably best friend” He paused “She died ten years ago…..”

Judy didn’t answer but her lowered ears and comforting paw on Peter’s shoulder showed her comprehension.

Peter held back his emotions and continued

“She wanted to be an archeologist…… So when I can’t sleep, I come here and look at the desert…… Hoping she’s there somewhere”

As Judy still didn’t answer, the fox suddenly changed behavior and became more energetic

“You know what ? just forgot what I told you, I’m sorry”

He suddenly got up and moved a bit throughout the apartment.

“There’s no problem….” Judy smiled

The fox seemed now frozen by shame, unable to justify his sudden action, he tried everything he could to hide his embarrassment.

Judy was about to say something again but she was interrupted by Peter’s phone ring: the liberation he was waiting for.

“It’s Jim, mind if I go into the bedroom ?”

She shacked her head

He almost ran to the room and shut the door behind him.

“Hello ?” He picked up

“Hey there, still awake ?”

“I’m answering you so I’d say yes” He rolled his eyes

“you sound...different, anything wrong ?”

“No! nothing, I’m just tired”

The fox tone of voice obviously indicated that something wasn’t right but Jim decided to move on.

“Anyway, I got into some classified intelligence files and got something interesting: two mammals were part of Grittenhouse for some years during their early twenties: nicknamed _Nick and Finnick:_ a red fox and a fennec _”_

“Oh, that’s nice! anything else ?”

“They took part in the group’s activities, but not violent ones, they were authorized to leave by the boss. The proceedings were dismissed considering that they weren’t dangerous and could be used as sleepers at some point”

“Ok, so why do you think they wanted to do that ?”

“I dunno, you may know that though” He ironically asked

“I don’t! that’s why I’m asking you !” Peter launched

“Peter, you should tell Hopps what happened. you trust her right? If she knew that’d help both of you”

“I can’t Jim ! such things aren’t just like saying why the floor’s wet !” He launched with a bit annoyance in his voice 

“Anyway, you do what you want. Have a good night Peter, I’ll call again if I learn more, cya”

“cya” 

“Shit…,” he whispered as he hanged up.

He came back to the living room only to immediately see an impatient rabbit in front of the door, he jumped again.

“So ?”

“I think Nick hid something from us” The fox’s irritation could still be heard in his voice and he looked serious

“He was part of it” She deducted

“yeah, with a certain _Finnick_ “

“I know him too, we gotta see that fennec !”

“No, too dangerous, if they killed Nick, they would probably kill him too”

They cogitated again.

“So we’re stuck ?” Judy asked

“Kinda yeah….”

The bunny pondered again but when her face suddenly turned happy

with a bright smile and straight-up ears, Peter knew she remembered something. 

“I know someone who can help us !”

“Oh ?”

“A private detective! got her card !”

“Nice !” He smiled as his anger vanished

“Amy Miller....working at _The Ramsey_...A hotel apparently in the city center”

“There’s a reception there tomorrow, some kind of rich and fancy ball.”

“that’s our only chance to see her and been unnoticed” She proposed

“Wait….High ranked people will be there….” Peter pondered “Maybe some of their members will! we could learn things !” he exclaimed

“So we could see Mrs. Miller and at the same time try to spot their members, do you know how though ?”

“Jim told me that they usually wear some distinctive signs”

“Like ?”

“Clothes, jewels, and stuff…Don’t worry I’ll recognize them”

“So I go see Miller while you stay outside and look for them”

“Oki Doki lieutenant !”

“I’ll call her, mind if I go in the bedroom ?” she winked

The fox nodded

Once in the room, she composed the number and didn't wait long before someone answered

“Hello ?” Miller started

“Hello, Miss…..I’m Judy Hopps, if you remember….” She shyly started

“Oh ! yeah ! you can call me Amy, do you need anything ?”

“Well...yes, the thing is...I launched myself and a friend on the investigation of Nick’s disappearance and we’re kinda stuck…..”

“Oh…” She hesitated a bit “I see...what do you think about going tomorrow to _the Ramsey_ so that we can discuss all that ?”

“That’d be really sweet of you, how much would it be ?”

“Don’t worry about that! you’ll have nothing to pay, see you tomorrow !”

“Hold on…” Judy hesitated a bit

“Anything else ?”

“Yeah...there’s someone I need to know more about…..is it possible ?”

“Sure! give me the name and I’ll look at it to see what I can have”

“Ok…….” 

Judy hesitated again, paw above the hang-up button, She didn’t know if what she was about to ask was a good idea or if it would help her in any way, but she had to know. She looked around to make sure she couldn’t be heard 

“It’s Mr. Peter Wolson”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're curious about Peter's tune, here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gMx_Yiut9w :3


	8. Ghosts

It’s been 24 hours since they had had all these new Infos and were now preparing for their plan: _The Ramsey._

It was evening, As the sun had just set, Peter was looking at the desert through his living room window. He was ready for the reception, wearing a black suit, a white shirt with a bow tight of the same color, He looked handsome but that was the least he could do for the reception they were attending. He looked at his watch: 8 pm.

“Come on Judy! We’ll be late !” he called 

A closer voice answered “I’m ready”

The fox immediately turned around to see a beautiful Judy wearing a shiny golden looking dress. That view of a more feminine Judy impressed the fox. 

The fox eyes wide opened

“You’re….gorgeous ma’am” He smiled

“Thanks….Last time I wore it was at the police ball”

“Alright, we’re ready to go! after you” He opened the door and showed Judy to pass

“Thank you gentlemen” she teased 

After some minutes of driving through downtown Zootopia’s traffic jams in a car that Peter had rented to appear more natural, they finally arrived at _the Ramsey._ The establishment deserved it’s 5 stars, it was massive and even the facade looked luxurious. They parked nearby and approached the magnificent temple looking porch. A Doe in a white suit looked at all the people getting in.

“Wait...How do we get in ?” The fox questioned

“Trust me….” she smiled 

“Hello sir, I’m Jhopps and here’s a friend of mine”

The doe, surprised at first, understood as the name echoed in his head.

“Please sign here” he politely asked

Judy signed and the doe opened them the door

“Welcome, Miss Miller awaits you in room 426. Have a nice soirée” he smiled

“Thank you”

The fox looked back as they were passing the revolving door.

“Well done lieutenant !” he smiled

The inside was a large circular and luxurious hall under a high cupola from which a big and beautiful luster was hanging. The walls were made of marble and other rare stones, it exactly looked like a European 18th-century castle. The reception itself meant to resemble a 19th-century ball. On the sides, two marble stairs were following the curve of the hall to lead the visitors to the first stage, or at least to a wide balcony preceding the first stage and dominating the whole room. Down in the hall, many mammals were dancing slowly as classical music was being played by an orchestra. 

“The second Waltz….” Peter declared as he was almost dancing “One of my favorites” 

“We’re here for work, Mozart !” She joked

“Come on ! you’re at the most expensive soirée of the whole city and you don’t wanna take advantage of it a little bit? I mean… Look at the food!” He showed what was probably the biggest buffet anyone could see in his life

She rolled her eyes 

“Let’s get the job done before”

They got up the stairs and split, The fox stayed at the balcony while Judy went to the 426th room. The fox hid his face with his sunglasses and approached the balcony’s marble guardrail, looking for anything interesting.

Judy walked through the mazes that were this hotel’s corridors Everything looked luxurious. There was some late 19th-century decoration with a red embroidered carpet on the ground and wooden walls. Old looking light bulbs were attached to them. The doors were made of an aristocratic and varnished brown wood with golden handles.

She finally arrived at number 426, indicated by a golden plate in the middle of the door.

She knocked, the door partially opened to let a black cocker spaniel see who was behind the door.

She smiled

“Hello, Judy! hold on a sec, I’ll open it fully”

She closed the door to remove the lock and invited her inside.

The room looked similar to the hallway Judy was standing in minutes ago.

Amy sat behind what must have been her desk since it was covered in files and papers.

She pushed it away a bit.

“Have a seat” she smiled.

Judy sat down as Amy took some paper to write down notes

“So… what’s the matter ?”

As Judy explained to Amy all she knew, Amy was taking notes to build some theories. Once Judy finished, Amy concentrated a bit more on her own assumptions.

“I think Nick and his acolyte did something bad that upset them, they maybe didn’t do a mission they were told to or maybe they did something… more, that they didn’t want them to do. So they probably kicked them out. ”

“But if they did that, why did they wanna kill him afterward?”

“You know, many gangs use such methods: when the leader changes in between, which is what happened here, their vision of betrayal or anything may change so they decide to punish them in another way. And, you know, revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Judy nodded.

“But why like that? And why would they want to kill me too?”

The cocker seemed confused by the question and pondered it a bit more.

“Maybe it’s linked to what he did, which I don’t know, and maybe they weren’t aiming at you directly.”

“Ok… could you look into some more details? it’s still really blurry”

“No problem !” I’ll call you when I get something”

She was about to shake Amy’s paw when she realized that she’d forgotten something.

“Oh and…” She paused “Did you find something about Peter Wolson ?”

“I did!” she energetically looked in all her paper mess. 

“Okay so, something’s not right about him.”

“Huh?”

“He’s existed in the City archives for just 5 years, even though he didn’t live here before, that’s strange. I looked in the federal archives and saw that he pretty much popped up in Zootopia two years ago. Before that, nothing. There was a certain Sammy Wilson that looked pretty much like him as a child, living in New Jersey, but he died in a car accident 13 years ago.

“And in between ?”

“He disappeared from the face of the earth, there is nothing about him, until his reappearance in Zootopia 5 years ago.” She paused

“And what is even more disturbing is that he appeared in Zootopia some days after a major Bank robbery in Zoo York,” She paused. “Some Grittenhouse members were part of it.” 

“Do you think he can be linked with all that ?”

“It’s only assumptions for now but I’ll check that in more detail, do you know him?”

“He’s my _partner “_ She mimicked with her fingers “He’s acting a bit strange when we talk about Grittenhouse.”

“Grittenhouse is something serious here, even more, when you have some undone business with them, maybe that’s what he tried to avoid, or maybe he’s more implicated in that case than he lets you know.”

“I’m sure that he is not a bad person…”

“Everyone can fake their behavior and trick you.” 

“Maybe….” She hesitated a bit, probably trying to assimilate all these Infos “Anyway thanks for the help.”

“You’re welcome, I’ll let you know if I find anything else.”

Peter was starting to get bored, no sign of any Grittenhouse members anywhere, he was still trying not to be seen by blending into the crowd on the balcony, eventually picking up a martini from a waiter passing by. 

He looked down again just in time to see a group of large size mammals enter the building. All chatting, both predator and prey, all in the same outfit he was in. He took a closer look and saw what he was hoping to see: a letter G tattooed on all the mammal’s legs.

“Here they are” he smiled

“What happened to you guys ?” he whispered “And what are you all doing here? Is it the new meeting place? Is the Boss nearby?”

Unable to answer his questions just yet, he drank a mouthful of his martini but the sudden touch of a paw on his shoulder made him jolt.

“I’m back!” Judy smiled

He turned around, coughing and showing Judy that he wasn’t satisfied.

“Why? _cough_ can’t you _cough_ not scare me to death ?!”

“Sorry! Did you find anything?”

The fox quickly turned back to his original position. Judy was surprised and tried to move for him to see her but he avoided her.

“Don’t look at me” he insisted 

Judy seemed even more surprised but she complied and looked at the crowd.

“Some of them are down here” he showed her the group he had spotted.

“Ok so, what do we do ?”

“Wait. “

“What? And why do you wear sunglasses??! it’s night !”

“Didn’t you do some shadowing before ?” he told her without looking.”We try to stay as quiet as possible and see what happens.”

“Come on, we entered together !” She finally turned back towards him but he was gone

“Damn fox” she mumbled

She advanced towards a clear space from which she could observe the whole group: an Elephant, a Hippo, a Lion, and a Hyena. All looking like they were just having a nice discussion full of laughter, it didn’t look like some suspicious gang.

But what followed _was_ suspicious, a wolf approached with an envelope.

She looked closer…… It was _him_ ……..THE wolf that killed Nick. She was sure about it.

He handed one of the groups the file.

“We need to see that” she whispered to herself “Where did that stupid fox go?” 

She actively looked for him but her research was cut short when a smaller mammal, – probably a canine – sprinted through the room, his face hidden under a balaclava and wearing dark clothes. He ran to the group and punched the member who held the files, picking them up and fleeing 

“SECURITY!” Someone yelled as the thief turned to leave the building. He was so agile that he easily avoided all the customers and the guards. 

Peter finally got back to Judy.

“We gotta get him!” she cried 

She was preparing herself to run but realized that too many surprised mammals were blocking the way.

“We gotta make them move!”

“Do you want me to try?” He smiled

“Yeah, anything but we gotta move!”

He pulled out a revolver and shot twice in the air

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the shooter before someone had the great idea to yell which resulted in a giant panic, and the thief used that diversion to exit the building. 

Judy looked at Peter with a mix of fear, surprise, and anger.

“WHAT THE FUCK PETER?!” she yelled

“What?! You wanted space, there’s some now !” he showed with his free paw

He looked at everyone yelling and running around in disarray.

“whoops, maybe not” he admitted

Judy facepalmed

The fox actively looked for any way out he could find that would help them catch the thief.

“This way” he pointed. 

Instead of running down the stairs full of panicked animals, they hurried to an open window at the end of one the first stage’s hallways, the fox jumped through it, landing in a tree that let him drop softly ton the ground.

The thief was running away, Peter went after him.

Judy finally jumped and tried to run with her dress but she was too slow and quickly lost them.

The pursuit continued through Zootopia’s narrow streets in the middle of the night.

She realized that the thief was also being pursued by the Grittenhouse members of the reception, who were all armed.

The robber was trying to escape through the narrow alleys and dead ends, selecting the ones that would slow his pursuers the most. However, Peter knew these tricks as much as his opponent did. After some minutes, that game turned against him when he ran into an impassable wall, Peter finally coming close to him.

“You’re trapped! Give up now!”

As he was about to give up, some gunshots were heard and the bullets brushed past them.

Peter suddenly grabbed back his revolver and threw himself behind some trash containers. It was Grittenhouse shooting at him. He shot back to slow them down.

However, the thief used this opportunity to jump and cross the wall.

“Damit !” he swore

He quickly reloaded, shot a burst at them, and ran to gather momentum for his leap above the wall. 

He narrowly crossed it and landed back on his prey. He was more or less the same size as he was.

He grabbed him, threatening him with the gun on his temple.

"Don't you think about moving a muscle, you ain't going anywhere. Now you shut up and follow me," he calmly told him.

He didn't respond and both hid in between garbage containers instead of fleeing to the open and much larger street ahead of them. The Grittenhouse members passed by, believing that both of them had taken advantage of the wall and leaped to escape into the nearby street. Once Peter was sure they all left, he slowly released his prisoner

"Ok, so who are you and what is that?" he took the envelope

The mammal was silent

"Remove that!" Peter ordered more aggressively

"Ok, ok, easy there, I'm dead anyway"The mammal finally complied

Peter's face distorted, he couldn't believe what he was seeing

"Dear lord….."

Judy had stood in the vehicle for a half hour now, cursing her dress for preventing her from taking part in the pursuit. She was kinda worried for Peter after all the gunshots she’d heard. However she was glad that the same fox had the great idea to park further away from the hotel's enclosure, the police had secured the whole perimeter and it would have triggered some serious problems if the ZPD knew she was kinda responsible for that mess.

She was taken out of her reverie by someone knocking at the passenger door, it was Peter. She smiled, opening the door for him

" Are you alright? Do you have any injuries? "

"Nothing, don't worry but I have some good and bad news"

"Oh?"

"Good news is I got the envelope"

He showed it with his right paw

“But the bad news is I also got the thief..."

"And how's that bad news?"

"I dunno if that's a good idea to show you…"

She didn’t understand and showed it.

"It's not a matter of a good idea or not"

"It's really the case here…"

She didn't know what to say but eventually came up to a simple answer

"I don't care, go ahead"

Peter gently pushed the canine at the back of the car.

"Would you please remove that?"

The mammal hesitated a bit but finally removed his balaclava again, much slower this time.

Judy couldn't believe her eyes, her feelings, nor her brain, or anything, she was so shocked. Her ears fell back. She tried to speak but her emotions were so strong that almost nothing came out of her mouth.

"Nick…?"


	9. Death is only the beginning

By the middle of that hot summer night, Peter and Judy were driving with their new friend through the abandoned streets of Happytown. Such a paradoxical name including it was an old and abandoned part of the city that looked more desolate than anything. It was an abandoned industrial district full of uninhabited buildings, as if everyone suddenly left. Everything was peaceful and silent, would that be in the district or the car….a deafening silence. The atmosphere was obviously tense after what happened a few hours ago. It was just like a calm before the storm and everyone seemed to know that. Peter was driving in silence while Judy was glancing at the night sky through her window, probably up to some thoughts.

The other fox, the one that had been declared dead months ago was sitting in the center back seat. Just like Judy, he was only a shadow of his former self: months of hard labor could be seen on his face and body, he seemed weaker, he had lost weight and was undoubtedly tired physically as well as emotionally. All of what was left of Judy’s partner was probably his looks. He didn’t even try to talk, or even smile just like he always did, only looking down at his legs just like a lifeless doll would.

Peter stopped, as he finally found a space to park in front of an abandoned mall.

He and Judy got out, she sat down on what was left of the trunk of a cut tree.

Peter opened the rear door and invited Nick out.

The fox detached his seat belt and sat on the edge of the back door.

He redressed his head for the first time of the whole night to only show a tired and miserable face. 

He tried to look at Judy whose eyes were full of despair but she quickly crossed her arms and looked away.

Peter finally broke that never-ending silence.

“I think we deserve some explanations…”

Nick nodded before looking at his feet again.

“It’s….complicated….”

Nick’s first words made Judy furious

“Come on Nick! You just can’t disappear like that and only say that it’s complicated!” She yelled.

Nick didn’t seem to notice that rush of anger and kept going with an exhausted voice

“But I’ll explain everything…..” He heavily sighed “...It all had started when I was young, maybe around 12. Back then I and my mom weren’t that rich….making a living wasn’t something easy. To help her with the rent, I made some money in the streets, I was already pretty good with all that con-artist stuff…”

He paused to regain his breath

“When I reached 20, I didn’t want to continue school. It was useless for me, I wasn’t good at anything, and after all what university would accept a fox? So I decided to do what I was best at: hustling. 

But I still needed some cover ‘cause that milieu’s dangerous so I turned to an organization who saved me once from being arrested: Grittenhouse”

These words pronounced by Nick himself made Judy a bit more despaired

“I participated in their hustling actions and really felt like I was considered for once. I eventually met Finnick there, I was happy for the first time in my life…. But it didn’t last...I was once forced to join a more dangerous and….assertive mission. I couldn’t do anything, I’m not a violent person, neither was Finnick. we were useless... After _that_ mission, we quickly lost faith in what we were doing as part of Grittenhouse and so we decided that we’d ask the boss to leave. We knew we could have been killed but we didn’t care much anymore. He eventually accepted and we went on our own I and Finnick, doing hustles without the pressure of the gang. We kept going until I met you.”

As he pronounced his last sentence, he looked at Judy again, probably trying to establish a confident gaze but it only made her avoid eye contact again.

“And what’s next ?” Peter asked

Nick resumed his story

“I thought it was all over but one day, maybe 5 years ago, Finnick told me that he had learned that the boss had changed. At first, he seemed like a nice guy, but he quickly turned more and more fanatic, accusing everyone of treason especially the ones who had left. I was scared for a bit but apparently, nothing was wrong with me so I kept going…... But recently, _that_ day, when I saw that symbol on the van…….I knew that my past got back to me again. When I woke up at the hospital, I knew I couldn’t keep going like that. My life would have been unlivable, my colleagues, my family, my friends, and even their families would have been directly threatened………..That’s why I decided that my disappearing would be the best choice for everyone.……”

He tried to look at his former partner again, this time she didn’t draw her attention elsewhere but Nick knew he had to say something this time.

“I know I hurt you but I had no choice, Judy… I really didn’t...” He tried

Judy couldn’t hold her emotions anymore.

“How dare you do that! Why didn’t you just tell me! Do you have any freaking idea of what it feels like ?!” She yelled “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH?! YOU… YOU…”

She tried to think about how to finish her sentence, but nothing came out.

“Fuck…….” She turned around and hurried to the nearest abandoned building, leaving them behind.

An awkward silence settled between the two foxes but Nick surprisingly found the strength to break it after a few minutes. 

“How does she feel ?” He directly looked at Peter for the first time, His desperate eyes seemed like they really wanted an answer 

“Hum let me think….” Peter ironically pondered “...like someone who sees a mammal she thought dead for nearly 2 months !”

Nick didn’t answer, probably knowing he deserved such treatment.

He now looked even more miserable, Peter was affected by this vision, he didn’t even know that fox before but he looked he was sure that _this Nick_ wasn’t the one that he used to be.

“Listen here…..I don’t want to be rude or anything but I need answers right now”

“I Told you everything I knew”

“I know there’s more, What were you stealing there tonight ?”

“I spotted their meeting point a few weeks ago and used one of my contacts to get in. When I saw that wolf who shot me carrying that letter, I thought it was something important and that I could use to gather more Infos”

Peter opened Nick’s envelope, a cell phone was inside. Peter unlocked it without any problem, he looked at the files and found something...his eyes showed his stupefaction 

“Nick…..Could you explain to me….. that ?!”

He turned the screen around to play a video. It was some security camera footage.

A red fox could be seen, he and Nick were as alike as two peas in a pod. 

At first, he was just walking in a street, looking for something, but when a young dog came out of a building, he changed behavior, dressing in a full black suit, just like a ninja. He approached him and eventually engaged a little discussion but after a short moment, he took out a syringe and injected something into him. The young dog quickly fell asleep, and the fox could easily kidnap him. The video ended on that shocking image.

Nick himself was shocked and he surprisingly found the strength to protest 

“That’s bullshit! I never did such things!” 

“You knew what was inside! that’s why you stole it!” Peter accused 

“I knew nothing about that! But YOU seem to know more !” he yelled, aggressively pointing at Peter with his finger

“Don’t tell things you may regret and have no clue about !”

“Wait ! you sound just like them! same outfit, same attitude and you were there too! plus how did you manage to unlock that phone so easily?! “

Peter looked angrier and angrier. He wasn’t angry like he’d been the other night, this time it was true aggressiveness. 

“You just act as if you didn’t know anything but we can read in you just like in an open book !” Nick continued

“Stop.” Peter aggressively grumbled, his muzzle folded with lines of disgust, eyes narrowed and teeth bared 

“I think you’re actually him……...Mr. X !” Nick responded

Peter released his aggressiveness, suddenly grabbing Nick’s shirt’s collar and violently pulled the red fox near his face.

“Don’t force me to be a bad person….” he growled while looking at his prisoner directly in the eyes

He held him tight for a few seconds. Nick looked terrified by this sudden action, making him speechless. Peter’s attitude quickly changed, as he turned from the most aggressive anger to shame about his own action, shocked by what he himself did.

He released Nick and took a few steps from him who still looked at his aggressor, taken aback by what happened.

It took some minutes for both of them to recover from that. Peter finally broke the silence

“You do what you want…. It’s up to you, I’ll check on Judy”

The great tension between both of them completely vanished. 

“I’ll help...even if that’s the last thing I’ll be good for…I’ll stay here”

Peter nodded and moved towards the mall in which Judy found refuge.

\------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been abandoned for quite some time, many windows were broken, vegetation started to regain its rights and some shopping carts were left outside. Pretty much all entries were sealed off by brick walls which were tagged.

Peter found a way in and only found a large, dark, and empty room. He was quickly attracted by some nocturnal light coming from a large opening in the roof, probably a part that collapsed due to humidity. The bunny he was looking for was laying down on the roof remnants that collapsed, looking at the night sky through the opening.

“Hey Judy, are you ok ?”

Judy took a quick look at who was calling her, when she saw it was Peter she turned back to the sky.

“I dunno…..I dunno what to think honestly….I feel like it’s a nightmare, like none of this is real”

He approached, removing his suit's jacket and bow tie and laying down next to her.

“Life is kind of a nightmare you know…. It waits for the right time to throw at you all the worst problems….but in the end, you mostly can get on top of it”

“Mostly ?” She looked at him

He shrugged 

“Some problems just can’t be solved, that’s how the game works….”

While looking back at the sky, Judy sighed

“My problems here are unsolvable….”

“Don’t say that, you solved the so-called _Night Howler_ case that nobody managed to”

“It’s not the same thing…”

“Maybe but...you know, people always disappoint you at some point, ‘cause everyone lies, you gotta experience that for you to grow up”

“Maybe…”

The silence of the night accompanied by cricket noises filled the atmosphere for several minutes.

Peter suddenly sighed

“Might not be the right time but….wanted to thank you…and apologize”

“for what ?”

“For yesterday’s night...I was a jerk, you just wanted to help me but my stupid inner self-defense mechanism took over…”

Judy lifted up a bit and sat crossed legged, now looking at Peter whose eyes seemed to still be lost in the vacuum of space. 

“You didn’t do anything wrong, everyone needs help sometimes.” She smiled “You were the only one to care about me so it was natural I helped you too…”

“You’re actually also the only one to care about me for a long time…..” He paused “since Andrea…..” 

Judy’s smile faded away

“It that ?” Judy hesitated

“Yes….She was a cheetah, we met in high school and were having the best time of our lives: that’s what you could call real friendship….until that day…..that horrible day…..”

He paused, taking the time to breathe a bit

“The day it all ended….in an instant: I was crossing the street, she was behind me, by only a few meters but it was these meters that sealed her fate. A pickup arrived like a shot and hit her full force, under my eyes, I couldn’t do anything…… By the night she was declared dead and with that all my happiness….”

Judy’s ears dropped as she was giving him a comforting face, even though he kept looking up.

“I failed at school because I was _the one who killed_ her for most teens and their parents. Wasn’t so wrong since it was me that made both of us cross that dangerous road. I didn’t care much though, I focused on the only other things I liked: sciences and especially space: I’ve wanted to be an astronaut since I was a child….” He slightly smiled at the sky

“But the teachers clearly showed me no one wanted an untrustworthy fox in any science school, or the space sector, especially after what I did. The only ones that weren’t against me just didn’t care so I failed and studied medicine on my own, maybe because I thought it was some kind of a way for me to accept the fact I couldn’t save her…that’s how I started that _life_ ”

He finally looked back at Judy

“Maybe I can consider myself lucky to have met someone who finally cares about a weird fox“

She approached, grabbing his paws

“You’re not just a weird fox, you’re much more than you think you are, it wasn’t your fault. And I can consider myself lucky to have you, such an amazing mammal with me” she smiled 

Judy’s phone, which was laying down a few feet from her, vibrated, the screen displayed a message from Amy.

Peter was the first to see it though. He suddenly woke up, grabbed the bunny’s phone, and took a few steps from where he used to be. When he took a look at the content, however, he froze.

Surprised by that reaction, Judy woke up as well

“Peter, you alright?” Judy asked, worried

“What….is…..THAT?!” he angrily replied

He showed Judy the message.

_Judy, Be careful! I looked for more details about Wolson like you told me too and what I discovered is...scary. Be really careful with him, he’s playing with you since the beginning, I’m coming with backup, we’ll be there in 5 minutes!_

Judy seemed to panic, as if the sky had fallen on her head. her ears dropped and she started to breathe faster. 

“Peter…..it’s not what you think….” she awkwardly replied

The fox didn’t look at her.

“I was….naive and stupid….” 

he slapped his head

“STUPID ! how could I think I was lucky and safe for once ?!” he cried

“Peter…”

“Sshhh, They’re going to be here soon !” he turned his ears and looked around “gotta go”

“It wasn’t against you…It’s just…. I felt like you were hiding things...”

“Oh really? hiring a private detective to track me isn’t against me ?! but guess what; you’re RIGHT !! I’m hiding you stuff! ”

The fox ran to a room at the back of the building, Judy was shillyshally but in the end, she ran after him

“Hey! listen….I’m gonna text her back and tell her that I made a mistake and……” she tried with a bit more confidence

“Oh really? ….” the fox launched above his shoulder, he suddenly turned around but kept walking backward “listen here little bun, that’s not how things work in real life! and even if you _help_ me, I’m screwed”

“What are you hiding from me, Peter? That’s the only thing I need to know...”

He stopped and longly sighed 

“I knew Nick wasn’t dead since we went to the hospital…Rahouse told me. And _this_ should explain the rest…”

he lifted up his right leg’s pants’ sleeve, showing a half-erased tattooed letter on his ankle: a G

Something seemed to die inside Judy’s gaze.

“That explains everything right?...now I’m out….” he sighed, resuming his rush

“Wait…..” Judy sighed, astonished.

The blond fox ran to the door but as they were a few meters from it, it burst opened, followed by a grenade 

“too late…..” Peter whispered

The grenade exploded, releasing a bright flash and a loud high pitched deafening sound.


	10. Downfall

“Police! Paws up and get down!” an angry voice yelled.

Judy couldn’t hear or see anything. The white flash of the bang had completely blinded her, earing wasn’t much better, filled by continuous tinnitus. 

Even though the cops yelled, she barely heard them. As her vision unblurred, she saw many SWAT officers storming the building. Two of them immobilized her and she got cuffed. 

The lighting fast operation quickly ended, Judy was escorted outside, the once peaceful place was now filled with police cars, their beacons enlightening the whole area with blue and red lights. 

She was ashamed, ears hanging in her back. A cop like herself, cuffed just like a criminal, outlaws she dedicated her life tracking down. 

She followed the cruising speed the cops gave her, looking down, probably to avoid eye contact with any of her colleagues. 

A voice called her

“Judy!“ 

She instantly straightened up, it was Amy running towards her

“Release her, she has nothing to do with him!” She told the cops

They uncuffed Judy, who rubbed her paws.

“You alright?” Amy asked with concern.

“yeah….” she hesitantly answered, looking more like she was thinking than listening to Amy 

“What you gonna do with Peter?”

Amy gently grabbed Judy’s elbows and looked at her trustfully

“He’s not the one you think he is…..he manipulated you all along. I looked for more info about New York’s bank robbery 5 years ago. It was a Grittenhouse operation, nothing was robbed but their boss insisted to talk Mr. Bomq, a famous billionaire during negotiations that day. Instead of asking for any money or way to escape, he delivered a long speech to criticize society and Bomq had his private life completely revealed, which involved massive embezzlement and awful treatments towards his employes as well as family assassinations. It caused his fall and he was sent to jail. Once the establishment was stormed by the special forces, no one shot, all the  _ robbers  _ surrendered but their chief wasn’t with them. He wasn’t even in the same building or district, so he escaped and no one saw him ever again. All his acolytes knew it was a suicidal mission and they didn’t say anything about their boss they were referring to as  _ Mr.X.,  _ a cool guy, according to them”

She moved towards a police van, accompanying Judy with her paw in her back.

Once in, she opened a file and resumed 

“He disappeared from the face of the earth, until I found this “

She took a photo out

“You see this tattoo? it’s their mark: the way they recognize each other.”

“He had one of them…..” she sighed

“In addition, He had a motive: Nick betrayed the community by leaving it so Peter tracked him down. Seeing that he had failed to eliminate him, he looked for Nick, that’s why he used you to find him” 

Judy sat in one of the van’s seat

“I can’t believe it….”

“But it’s true, I told you, Judy, he’s a manipulator, he pretends to be someone else so that you fall into his trap ”

“That miss is right” a familiar voice echoed from outside. Judy stood up. It was Peter being escorted towards a police car

“Did you really think I was a good guy? That I was……. well-intentioned?” he sharply asked with threatening behavior.

Amy took position in front of the fox, looking at him directly in the eyes

“Mr.Wolson, as shown by these shots, you’re linked to the  _ Bomq’s operation  _ and because this day, the boss wasn’t with the robbers, you are confirmed to be…..Mr.X”

On the photos, a fox could be seen leaving an abandoned building, he tried to hide his face but it was clear it was Peter and his pants didn’t hide the mark on his ankle.

The fox didn’t react, seeming unaffected by the news.

“Good Job” he emotionlessly told Miller

She smiled in satisfaction before the cops move him towards a car.

Judy remained marble, astonished by what happened

She came to Judy

‘I’m so sorry….but there’s more” she sadly continued

“Nicholas Wilde, that apparently is alive, is also not as clean as he appears to be. This video shows the kidnapping of a young child….” She wanted to show the video but Judy prevented her from doing it, the fact that she told her that was enough.

“And the Kidnaper is no other than…..Mr. Wilde”

At his exact moment, Nick passed in front of the van, he was cuffed and ready to be board as well. 

Judy quickly looked at him, desperate. Nick seemed to feel the same and looked away. He and his accompanists quickly disappeared from her eyesight.

Amy give Judy a touch on the shoulder 

“I know it’s some seriously hard info to take...if you need anyone, I’m here and don’t worry, the ZPD knows everything now, you won’t have any problem”

The bunny, however, wasn’t considering what Amy was doing, focused on Peter she could see being searched in the distance, Nick was also being installed in the car.

“I’ll be back” she quickly said while running towards the blond fox

“Hold on a sec!” she called one of the cops as they were going to make Peter board the vehicle

“Peter…..”

The fox showed no emotion and cut her straight

“You got what you wanted since the beginning….you win, I lose. You chose your side, good for you…..I was the naive one here.” he monotonously said with still a tone of anger. 

“Wh--why ?” Judy emotionally asked

“Life is imperfect…” 

He asked the cop to give Judy his cellphone 

“Take that, it’ll be more useful for you than me”

The officers made Peter bend to enter the car’s back seat.

“Goodbye,” he added just before they close the door.

Judy stood where she was, looking completely empty inside.

The police car left the parking lot, carrying both foxes towards their fates. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_ 2013, 5 years prior, Zoo York City. _

The business district was jam-packed, as usual during peak hours.

A van approaches  _ Bomq’s business center,  _ one of the country’s biggest banks. It looked like a huge greek temple with massive walls being made of giant stone blocks. On the front side, giant columns gave it a mythic aspect, even though it was rather small compared to the neighboring skyscrapers.

_ The vehicle finds his way to the deliveries area and park next to the entrance. A group of twelve mammals, from a squirrel to a giraffe by way of wolves, bunnies, a hart, and a bear leave the vehicle. Everyone was wearing a black overall suit and were carrying boxes of equipment, they approach the security guard, a zebra. As soon as he sees them, he nods and opens the doors to let them enter the building. _

_ A few minutes later, during the opening hours of the bank, 12 mammals storm the whole area : coming from the storage area, they rapidly secure the whole establishment: the vault, the offices and the receptionist room,threatening everyone with submachine guns. They soon deactivate all the security cameras and declare they keep 30 hostages, all in good conditions _

“That’s what we got commander,” a moose tells an elephant. 

It's been an hour since the beginning of the heist and all the streets surrounding the establishment had been completely closed to the public. Even though many pedestrians as well as all the city’s news channels were gathered behind the security lines 

The pachyderm sighed. “Did we establish communication with them ?”

“Yes….they said they only wanted to talk to Bonq”

“Oh ?” he raised an eyebrow, surprised. “Do we know why ?” 

“Not really, they said that they wanted to talk to him and that they would free 5 hostages if we do it”

The elephant hesitated, probably trying to figure out what were these strange armed robbers’ intentions….

“Is he ok with that ?”

“Apparently yes, he ran over here as soon as he saw the news”

As he finished, he looked at the crowd from which some complaints could be heard. Someone was loudly protesting against the cops guarding the restricted area’s entrance.

It was another elephant in a business suit and accompanied by two rhino bodyguards.

“...and apparently he’s furious right now…” the moose resumed

The commander pondered a bit more

“Can we really let him handle it? he may cause some major issues and a negotiator would do a best job”

“They said they wanted him only”

The pachyderm rubbed his temples desperately sighing

“I guess we have no choice….let him get over here”

The moose ran towards the restless Mr.Bomq and brought him to the commander

“Hello Mr. Bomq, I think you know what’s going on” the official politely started

Bomq however didn't seem to be in the same mindset, acting way more casually, almost disrespectfully.

  
  


“Hello Commander, obviously I know! it’s a mess right now, the market’s crashing ! and there are also many mammals in there. I also know they wanna negotiate with me so let me talk to these bastards!” he angrily but confidently declared.

“Listen here sir, this is a serious operation! We’re not playing a game, these guys know what they’re doing. Usually, we need an experienced negotiator to manage it but they want you and no other. So you’re going to act serious and respectful at….all…..times!”

The commander’s gaze was probably the most serious anyone could see in his whole life

All that seemed to have calmed Bomq entirely “Ok….”

“I wanna know everything about their intentions and don’t you dare show any aggressiveness….." He lead him to a field office "This way please” he added 

The previous negotiator, a gazelle, handed Bomq the phone

“good luck” she smiled while establishing the line.

_ In the middle of a dark and empty room, on a loaded desk, a phone rings. Seconds after, on a neighboring couch, a relaxed canine figure straightens up. He stretches out before approaching the desk. Once seated in a comfortable office chair, he activates various devices to check if everything was working correctly, once he was sure everything was nominal, he picked up the phone.  _

A long phone' beep filled Bomq’s ear until a synthetic deep voice could finally be heard.

“Hello ?”

Bomq didn’t respect the commander’s rule and regained his provocative attitude. 

“Listen here! whatever happened, you’re going to get outta here and free everyone!”

The commander showed deep anger, as if he was about to trumpet; if the moose wasn’t holding him, he would have probably kicked Bomq’s butt

“Of course sir, of course…..”

The answer surprised everyone, as it didn’t come from the phone anymore, it could be heard in the whole street

“...but first, let’s start off correctly shall we?”

Bomq looked at the commander to show him he didn’t know what to do.

The police official angrily gestured at him to keep ongoing 

“Who are you ?” he sighed 

“There we go!” the mysterious contact exclaimed “For the sake of this negotiation, let’s call me Alpha”

“What do you want ?”

“That’s a very interesting question! World peace? love? Equal opportunities ?”

Bomq looked blasé.

“Just kidding! Actually all I want is your and  _ everyone’s _ attention.”

“What do you mean ?”

“Watch the building behind you”

Bomq turned around to see a computer destock projected on the building’s facade. 

“That’s gonna come in handy, as well as the speakers you probably already noticed on the roof”

Bomq didn’t answer, astonished by all this mise-en-scène.

“And to show you my bonne foi, you’re gonna see 5 mammals get out in 3..2...1”

As he finished, 5 hostages ran out of one of the doors. All the SWAT officers intervene to make sure they were hostages and secure them. 

“I’ll free 5 more in 10 minutes if you don’t try to interrupt me”

Bomq asked the commander with a gaze again, which the pachyderm answered with a head tilt.

“Go ahead….” he resumed

“Great! First things first, Even how stupid it may sound, I’m not the bad guy, there was a time not so long ago at all, I was just like you! A normal and law-abiding citizen. But things change, even more when the life of so many people are manipulated by so few influential mammals with their companies. I bet you never had to worry about money or anything. Why’s that? because business in one way of course, but not only, because well….. I lied, YOU are not a law-abiding citizen!”

Bomq snorted. “How dare you! I don’t think you are in a position to say that! What are your proofs for such a serious accusation?”

“Here they come, sir!”

Soon after, the projected screen displayed a bank’s account reports. It was mostly gains compared to loses and numbers were reaching pick highs with no name for the transactions 

“What these shows us is basically that you’re good at embezzlement. I think even a child would notice there are problems with your income and the _ ways _ you actually earn so much.”

Bomq looked confused and surprised at the same time.

“This is false information! Ask my banker for the real deal if you want! I’m clean.”

“Thing is, it’s the true one and your banker’s currently inside giving us these Infos! what you’re seeing is currently broadcasted!”

“W-what ?”

“You know, It’s not hard to pay some inspectors for them to turn a blind eye. Especially considering the rest I got on you”

The screen changed and displayed multiple emails and messages from Bomq, sometimes threats and sometimes money promises.

“all these communications were recovered from various devices: phone calls, messages: you always leave plots behind you these days.... Long story short: you corrupted everyone, you knew they had problems in their lives so you took advantage of it and basically offered them everything in exchange of...services and obviously silence about all that”

The Elephant didn’t answer.

“And if you’re skeptical, what do you think of a little testimony? Here’s Dimitri, one of the hostages, a squirrel do you know him ?”

“I have thousands of employees! I can’t remember all of them” He angrily said

“How curious! He’s supposed to be your third assistant...Anyway, that’s not the matter today…I’ll let him address you his message”

“I studied accounting for 10 years…...10 years! only to be considered as vermin...Bomq promised me a good job, but the only thing I got was a horrible life: awful office, working for 12 hours a day, sometimes more, without even being paid the minimum wage... considered as  _ inferior _ because of my height…. I remember him saying,  _ smaller body, smaller brain  _ once…I tried to quit but he basically told me I’d be dead if I did so, he basically threatened me….until now, that’s the end for you,  _ sir “ _

Bomq now looked uncomfortable

“That….That testimony was made under duress! how do you dare to tell me that this is proof!”

“Actually, he’s been out of the building for minutes now! Would you think an unthreatened mammal would follow its aggressors if it wasn’t true ?”

He suddenly turned to the recently freed hostages.

The squirrel was there, eyes full of determination. The SWAT officers quickly immobilized and body-searched him. He had a microphone but no headset or threatening device. In addition, no enemy sniper could be seen, meaning that the mammal had spoken freely.

The other hostages, scared of the crowd and police at first, slowly began to speak.

“I agree with Dimitri” one yelled.

Everyone followed.

“Me too”

“Me too !”

“ME TOO !” 

None of them had any device, not even a microphone.

Bomq’s face distorted

“And if you are scared about your  _ employees’  _ conditions, which you are obviously not, I’ll send you a selfie” Alpha resumed

A selfie was projected on a building, it was a casual picture just like one some friends could do together. All 30 hostages were here with their masked aggressors, all of them looking happy. It wasn’t forced smiles made under pressure but real and happy ones.

“All of this is a….misunderstanding” Bomq weakly answered

_ “ _ Ok then, can you tell me the names of all your employees in that photo? It’s your closest team after all!”

Bomq’s eyes largely opened, he looked around, everybody was looking at him in the deepest silence, as if the time had stopped 

“Come on we don’t have all day!”

Bomq seemed to interiorly panic.

“I have thousands of employees!” 

“As I said, they are the ones you work with on a daily basis”

Bomq took a long ponder, trying to retrieve the names but he failed.

“Ok then, I’ll need to ask for them then”

The projection showed a broadcast of the inside. Everyone looked happy as they were in the selfie, they all told their names and species which echoed in the street like the names of fallen soldiers during a military ceremony.

Once this uncomfortable situation for Bomq ended, Alpha continued 

“Let’s move to the third and last point. Do you know a small village going by the name of Chelsey?”

“I don’t…”

“Bad answer! everyone saw you lie hundreds of kilometers around ! and here’s why”

A picture was projected , it was from a local newspaper called _Chelsey city_ _news_. It showed Mr. Bomq and a Cheetah smiling while shaking paws in front of a city’s entrance sign: _Chesley city_

“That happened 15 years ago, you were with Mr. Kingston, a former business partner that decided to break away from you because he didn’t like your…...manners. He did well on his own with mamalitarian campaigns but he was threatening your own business too much so you decided to  _ eliminate him.  _ How did you do that? well, you didn’t, you made Elsa prepare the house for a nice little campfire however she got caught and arrested, no mobile, no psychological issues what a strange case if not linked to a wider organization don’t you think? And fun fact, she worked for you and you fired her some days before, isn’t it…..strange ?”

“Elsa ?” Bomq asked.

“Elsa, a nice and innocent polar mink that is currently inside alongside all of my comrades. She didn’t need you in her life” 

Bomq didn’t answer.

“Anyway….. though you failed him, you decided that your business was more important than something else, like……...a child’s life. Andrea Kingston, 17 at the time, a random kid hanging with friends and loved by their parents, and by her father, your rival. That’s why you forced Alfred to  _ accidentally _ crash, that day it worked, she died….and your destroyed rival vanished from your sight” 

He paused as everyone in the street looked angrier and angrier at Bomq’s attitude 

“Almost perfect crimes, but you’re never 100% incognito, and fear isn’t the solution, you can’t do such things for your business and think nothing will turn against you, and more importantly, you can’t prevent people from speaking forever. I’ll leave the rest to the authorities”

“If you are skeptical Commander, take a look inside his cellphone, the code is 785623”

The pachyderm hesitated a bit, as he was filled with mixed feelings. But the fact that everyone was looking at him made him choose his way.

He finally approached Bomq.

“Give it to me” he asked seriously..

Shocked, the elephant protested again. “You don’t have any right! Alan, Carl help me.”

However, Bomq’s bodyguards didn’t move and stepped aside from him. 

“We quit...as Dimitri said, we’re nothing more than objects to you, and today’s the day of liberation” one of them said. 

“Give it to me” the commander insisted, advancing his paw for Bomq to drop his phone in

All by himself and with the whole crowd starting to boo him, he shamefully handed his phone to the officer.

The commander entered the code given by Alpha and successfully opened the phone to discover all the clues that Alpha showed in his speech.

  
  


That unknown figure took the floor again.

“Citizens, I’m not here to tell you what to think, I’m here to deliver you all the keys to make your own choices. What history taught us is that people have the power, the power to decide what they want. You have the choice, either let yourself be corrupted or fight for a better future. Even though my road ends here today, you  _ all _ have the power to keep it going. Ladies and Gentleman, whoever you are, whatever species, gender, social background, do not let anyone take away your dreams from you and fight for it, because that’s not a few oppressors that shall prevent all mammal-kind from living as they wish. And remember, where there is a will, there is a way… have a nice day.”

As Alpha’s last words echoed in the street, revolutionary music started to play on the speakers

The whole crowd started to joyfully scream and applaud, as if everything that criminal had done was good. As some officers escorted Bomq out of the area under the boos, the commander regained his professionalism. 

“Get in! NOW !” he ordered his troops

_ Right after the end of his speech, the so-called Alpha left his desk, taking some time to stretch again.he slammed the desk hard and laughed in satisfaction for minutes. _

Meanwhile, some SWAT units were breaking in the bank, ready to shoot anyone resisting, but all they found were surrendering aggressors who threw their weapons on the ground with a beaming smile. 

_ Alpha grabbed a jerrycan and spilled what it contained everywhere in the room. He took the time to dress up in a black overall before taking a box of matches. He lit one of them and watched it burn with satisfaction, even though the light wasn't really bright, it revealed a blond fox with blue eyes. He exited the door and, as he was closing the door, threw the match in.  _

_ “Kaboom!” he smiled.  _

_ The fox exited the building he was in: some abandoned building in an old industrial district, far from the more populated business one. He looked around when leaving the building and ran towards the nearest method of transport he could find. _

  
  
  
That’s how I fled, it was perfect, wasn’t it? Of course, nothing’s perfect but it was close to. The only thing I didn’t see coming was  _ him, _ the one who took the photos, I don’t know who he is….but I’ll figure that out one day……….one day.”


	11. Revelations

“So, you know everything now…”

Peter finished telling his story to Nick, who was focused on his homolog’s voice.

They were sitting next to each over, on a metallic bench, wearing orange prison uniforms.

Even though Nick was looking at the blond fox the whole time and the fact that they weren’t the only ones waiting for transfer, he himself didn’t look at anyone during his storytelling. 

He was facing the wall in front of him.

Silence settled between the two. They both looked in the same mindset. 

Nick tried, after some hesitation, to make the conversation continue,

“What you did was….great…..it helped.”

“Not really...it’s like everything, it fades away after some time…...these things are good during a crisis but after, when it’s over…..who cares?

“What did you do after that ?”

“I came here, thinking I could turn over a new leaf, I thought I’d erased everything about my past, but it didn’t work out 100 %” he paused, “especially when a mammal disappears in such an organized way. That’s how someone contacted me to retrieve you” 

“Who’s that person ?” Nick asked

“You know him more than I do….”

“So you really wanted to eliminate me ?”

“If I wanted to, why wouldn’t have I done it during the pursuit ?”

“True….”

Peter sighed from tiredness.

He stood up and sat on another bench on the opposite side of the cell. leaving Nick alone.

It’s been hours since they were transferred in that waiting cell of  _ Toundratown’s high-security penitentiary,  _ a set of buildings in an uninhabited and lost area of the cold district. 

Nick looked at the old and rocky ceiling, ears against the cold wall, he took a quick gaze outside, only to hear and see a snowstorm.

“I hate cold…..” he whispered to himself

However, he didn’t wait much longer as a polar bear, obviously, a guardian opened the door

“622 and 624, your turn”

Both foxes complied. Nick came first, followed by Peter, he tried to give him a slight smile but the other fox didn’t bother himself answering. The guard quickly searched both of them and accompanied them to their cellblock.

It was a modern-looking establishment with many cutting edge technologies everywhere: touchscreens, cameras, neons and automated doors but there was still that really stereotypical touch of classical prison in the overall structure and ambiance of the area. 

They approached a massive and armored door guarded by four massive mammals, hippos and elephants, that looked as reinforced as the gate itself: bulletproof vests riot police helmets and shields and tranquilizer pistols.

Once the foxes were at the same level, the automated door opened. It took ten seconds for all the bolts to open one by one and the hinges to rotate, revealing a classic and less modern looking cell block they were going to be in.

Two other more fox sized guards, a labrador and a dalmatian took the two foxes towards their cell. Nick was sent in, followed by Peter. However, as he was about to cross the door’s enclosure, the dalmatian blocked the way with his arm.

"Hold on…” he took a quick look at his files to check something before looking at Peter again "you got a call…." 

Peter nodded and showed his paws to the officer again, completely neutral in his attitude. 

He was carried into the visiting room, completely deserted at this hour of the night.

One of the phones attached to the neighboring wall rang, which made the blond fox jump in surprise

“Damit !” he whispered to himself to regain his calm and not show the guards his instinctive reaction.

The labrador uncuffed him

“We’ll leave you alone in here for privacy, but don’t think you can escape or do anything stupid! many tried before ya but they’re still here today! So don’t mess with us….” He looked at Peter directly in the eyes

The fox nodded with a slightly irritated touch in his eyes.

The other guard hanged up and gave Peter the phone, they then both left the room as they told him, locking him inside.

He put the phone on his ear.

A familiar female voice echoed in his ear

"Hello ?"

"Oh ! Who am I listening to ?! Isn't it officer Hopps !?" he ironically started, showing some emotion after hours of neutrality

"Listen here Peter, I'm not calling you to laugh around, I WANT to have an explanation about all that !"

Judy’s mood quickly turned from seriousness to anger

"So you wanna know what ?! That I'm a coward that manipulated you to achieve his goal? Then yes I am !"

"You lied to me! Why ?! I trusted you !"

"Judy, EVERYONE LIES ! Any single one of us make mistakes and do things that they're not proud of! And more importantly: life is UNFAIR! And don’t think people are good, most of them only judge you by your past and don’t think you can change. We’re not evolved with that, it’s just our savage instincts: you have to be the smartest or you'll be eaten, that's what I and you just did, we betrayed each over, me back then by hiding you small things and you now by completely ruining the little bit of damn life I had! 

Same principle but different consequences"

"How can you dare say that! I'm not the bad person here! You tricked me in the first place and acted as if I was important for you! You faked your whole behavior to lure a depressed mammal, that's cowardly! All that to use me as a part of your stupid organization!"

"You can think whatever you want, I'm in prison so I don't care anymore, would that be for you or your  _ case _ , don't try to contact me anymore…."

“WAIT!” Judy yelled

This sudden reaction stopped Peter in his speech

"Apart from the case...was….was a single thing true in everything you told me?" she resumed with an exhausted voice

Peter sighed

"It was the only time someone managed to break my envelope……you reached my inner me, and that’s what made me fall, good job officer…… Goodbye"

Peter violently hung up the phone and leaned on the wall with his arms, looking at his feet.

“Hey there! easy on the material!” one of his accompanists yelled from behind the door

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From her side, Judy stayed still a few minutes before hanging up the mural phone of the room she was in. She was at  _ the Ramsey _ again, in another room dedicated to phone calls, as seen by all the different phones like hers all around the room, it was night and the room was dark, only illuminated by moonshine venturing through the window.

She hung up the phone and sighed, she took seconds of respite, head down, trying to hold her emotions but it failed and she suddenly punched the wall with a frustrated groan. 

However, as she hit the wooden wall, she stopped. 

Her anger instantly vanished

“What?...."

She hit the wall again, less hardy this time:  The sound of the plate was strange

"Sounds….empty" she whispered to herself

She examined the whole wall in more detail, she quickly found a notch and followed it with her fingers, it was bigger than it looked like……….maybe a door: she needed to find the opening mechanism.

After a few minutes following the notches, she found a power socket that seemed to be supplying one of the room’s installations, but the fact that it was close to the mysterious door made Judy curious about it

She lit her phone’s flashlight and took a closer look.

It looked normal at first sight but as she touched it, she realized the holes weren’t, it was just an outline, probably made to trick anyone curious, it looked so real that no one would have noticed it. She examined it a bit more and realized it was meant to be rotated around, which she did. 

A mechanism activated and the door she suspected exiting opened, it was sliding one which pulled itself in the inside of that fake whole, which looked way thicker.

She took a step in and discovered a hidden office with no window. It was old, full of files and plans all other the room’s walls and ceiling. In the middle, an office was standing with a computer, on the sides, many shelves and bookcases were so full that they seemed they were about to collapse at any moment.

“What does that mean?”

Judy approached the computer, it was currently running, a message was displayed on the screen. It was a message inside a chatting app from an anonymous mammal.

  1. _X, need confirmation for O45_



Judy’s ears dropped in surprise

“X…...obviously Mr.X which means Greenhouse, O45 ?......If I can figure out how to unlock it, I’ll learn more….”

She looked around until she figured out a phone connector.

“Well…..there no way for me to open it……”

As she was about to leave, something fell out of her pocket, it was Peter’s phone

“Hold on…. If Peter’s X then….”

She picked it up from the ground and attached it inside the phone connector, the computer instantly unlocked, which let Judy access a mine of Infos.

After minutes of scrolling through, her face distorted 

"God…..was everything?….."

Judy quickly gathered elements on her phone, looking around to see if anyone had seen her.

She then silently left the hidden office, making sure not to make any noise. Once out, she took a furtive look around and tried to escape but she was cut short in her run by a sudden knock at the back of her head.

The chock sent her straight to the deepest abyss of unconsciousness. 


	12. Belleville

The cell was cold and dark, illuminated only by the light of the corridor. Regardless, Nick could see fine thanks to his night vision. He was laying on the top bunk, paws behind his head, and looking at the ceiling as if it was some kind of a show. 

The night was calm, and there was a deafening silence. It was so calm that it would have driven anyone crazy within a few days. Thankfully Nick was a fox, and foxes like being alone. Especially a fox like him.

The sound of the door’s lock woke him up. It was Peter coming back to their cell. He slowly walked in, past the bed, making his way to an isolated corner on the other side of the room. He sat in between the oversized toilet and the corner of the cell, raising his head and leaning against the cold rocky wall. He let out a deep, somber sigh.

Nick stared at him for a few minutes, not knowing if it would be better to ask what was happening or just stay silent. He finally settled on minding his own business but even though he was trying to relax, it was unbearable. He couldn’t sleep and was continuously changing position. His mind was racing... About Peter, Grittenhouse, Judy….Had he just lost a friend? Worse yet, had he just lost his best friend and partner? It seemed that everything he’d worked so hard for over the last two years had collapsed in an instant. 

It didn’t seem anything was going to put his mind at ease. Least of all, trying to sleep.

“So now what ?” He whispered to himself.

Before he even thought about an answer, he heard a voice. It was quiet but it got his attention. Sitting up and looking around, he realized it was Peter humming a tune, a…familiar one.

It was faint, at first, but any predator in Zootopia would recognize that tune. Nick began singing the tune.

“ _ One misty morning, I woke from sleeping……. Oh, Belleville…... Belleville….Belleville…. _ ”

“ _ Oooone misty morning, I woke from sleeping…….to the sound of a tyrant’s reignnnnn _ ”

To his surprised the blond fox followed him

_ “Oh come, my brothers…… Fight off oppression…”  _

_ “Oh, Belleville! Belleville! Belleville! Ville! Ville! _ ” They sang slightly louder.

“ _ Come, my brothers! Fight off oppression! That the predators be free!”  _

Their words gradually crescendo until finally the two of them are belting out the song. Then, at once, they remember they aren’t alone. Many of the other prisoners have by now woken up. Peter and Nick stop singing, and meet the gaze of the inmates who are staring at them through the bars of their cells. But instead of being received with jeers, as the two expected, the prisoners, who were mostly predators themselves, joined the song. 

“ _ And if I perish…….and I should fall! Oh, Belleville! Belleville! Belleville! Ville! Ville! ” _

As the other inmates sang along, both foxes loosened up and stepped up to their own cell door. They both carried on, flooding the halls with the tune.

“ _ If I perish…….and I should fall! Then you’ll have to bury me!  _ ”

Now it seemed the whole block was awake and every predator in earshot was singing. Even the prey inmates had joined by now.

“ _ Up in the mountains, among the hillsides! Oh, Belleville! Belleville! Belleville! Ville! Ville!” _

_ In the mountains, above the harbor! That is where I’d like to be! _ ”

The choral sound was loud, and yet solemn. Everyone was united in this song, and the tension in the atmosphere completely vanished with each word they sang.

“ _ And all of the mammals, who pass the mountain! Oh, Belleville! Belleville! Belleville! Ville! Ville!  _

_ All the mammals, who pass it by! Will know what I perished for! _ ” 

Each lyric line echoed throughout the prison. Nick guessed that the sound of their song could probably be heard outside. Some of the prisoners even began banging metal against the bars of their cells, not nearly growing louder than the sound of the chorus.

_ “That’s the mountain, of the unwanted! Oh, Belleville! Belleville! Belleville! Ville! Ville!  _

_ That’s the mountain, of the unwanted! Dead for equality! _

_ That’s the mountain, of the unwanted! Dead for equality!” _

At the last line, each inmate began howling with laughter and joviality, and above it all the words “FREEDOM! JUSTICE!” could be heard.

However, it ended as quickly as it started. The guards rushed into the cell block with bitter screaming, attempting to subdue the inmates. Not all of them went quietly.

Neither of the foxes were going to put up a fight with the guards. Their cell was searched, and Nick hopped back to the top bunk - much more content than he was before. In fact, for the first time in months, Nick found a smile on his face.

“That was nice,” He said to Peter.

The blond fox, sitting on the bunk below him, smiled.“Yeah! You’re a good singer, ya know. I’m surprised.”

“That’s a song you get to know pretty well. Especially where I’m from…” Nick looked off the side of his bunk down towards Peter, but he didn’t return the gaze. He lied back down, facing the ceiling. “And how about you? What surprises does Peter Wolson have to hide under that cold, distant exterior?”

“Things my friend….things” Peter smiled to himself, again.

Hearing  _ my friend _ in a non-sarcastic and sincere way made Nick smile.

“More than I think I could recall in just one night!” Peter chuckles.

“Well, it’s not like I’ve got anywhere to be!” Nick replies.

The foxes continued chatting well into the early morning. It was a good way to keep their minds off of everything that’s happened. With each other, they found refuge in spite of their circumstances.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------

_ 1 month later _

“Come on, Nick! there’s no way you aren’t cheating!” Peter screamed

He, Nick, and some other partners were playing a board game. They were in the block's communal area, which was filled with probably a hundred prisoners performing various activities.

“It’s a dice game, how could I cheat?” the red fox answered with a sarcastic smile “You’re just a bad sport!”

The fox looked at him, irritated.“How can we call that a game in the first place?! It’s just a matter of coincidences!”

“Yep... he’s a bad sport: 100%!” Nick launched with a teasing smile to their game partners, who didn't hesitate to giggle as well.

As they were starting to make fun of him, the blond fox woke up.

“Ok...that’s me out !” he sighed

“Oooooh, c’mon! Do you want a nice daddy hug?” Nick teased with open arms.

Seeing that Peter kept getting away from their table without looking back, Nick stood up and joined him.

“Hey there! you’re way too touchy!” he added.

“I just hate failure…." he paused and looked around to see the canteen slowly opening, "anyway time to eat!”

They were served and sat alone at a table, one in front of another.Nick was examining his food with a slightly disgusted rictus grin.

“These mashed potatoes look like they’ve been expired for 20 years…”Peter smiled.“Probably because it’s spinach!”

Nick looked surprised.

“Don’t think I’m so stupid!” He took a mouthful of it “....dang, you’re right!”

Peter was snickering. “How much are you gonna pay to prevent me from telling anyone you can’t tell apart potatoes and spinach?”

Nick made a blasé face.

A sudden noise of broken glass cut them straight, someone had been pushed on the ground. It quickly attracted many mammals who gathered around the scene. 

“Another poor guy’s gonna get thumped…” Nick casually declared.

“Pollix again? How many guys did he attack this week?”

“Dunno, but that’s surely not his first.”

“let’s see” he smiled while waking up.

“What? Are you serious? I don’t want any trouble!”

“Don’t worry sissy! I’m just gonna take a closer look.”

He joined the group, Nick hesitated a bit but soon followed.

They made their way through to see what was going on in the middle of the circle.

A goat was threatening a wolf he had thrown on the ground, the poor predator was laying on the ground, defenseless. It was a sorry sight, even more for Peter: the fox was showing his anger with a nervous rictus and retracted ears. 

“Nick! we got to stop him!” he whispered.

“What?! he’s gonna kill us instead! that’s what you want?” 

“You were a cop weren’t you?”

“Yeah…...but that’s……old and how do you want us to do that with his gang?”

“Show me!”

Peter jostled him inside the fighting area, right in between the so-called Pollix and his victim.

His blood turned cold and even though he had fur, he appeared way paler.

Pollix tilted his head in surprised “Wanna fight you little fox?” 

“No no….I...I just slipped and…..I’m just gonna slowly leave this area and pretend I didn’t see anything! what do you think ?” Nick uncomfortably smiled, terrified. His fur had bristled and his ears were flat.

Pollix loudly laughed.

“You funny! get you ass over here!”

“Oh..Ok…”

Nick slowly advanced, hoping for a rather appropriate treatment.However, when he saw the punch coming towards his face, he knew it wasn’t an option anymore. 

“Wait! didn’t mean to disrespect you!” he cried, panicked, while avoiding the attack.

“Liar! Hope you have good insurance...” he sadistically smiled

“Hope you also do Pollix!” a voice called from behind the goat

Peter came out of nowhere and suddenly grabbed his arm, twisting it to perform an armlock. He then blocked the arm between Pollix’s shoulder blades and kept pressure on it, immobilizing the goat in the process 

“W--What? Who are you, release me!” Pollix yelled, angry.

“I’m Peter the fox and I’d like to tell ya something!” he joked. “Don’t you think it’s cowardly to attack weaker people?”

Peter’s victim was furious but the squeeze was so great he couldn’t move without suffering more, he could only barely stand the pain.

“Guys!” he yelled to his former friends, who had fallen back to the spectators' line.

“Your  _ followers _ won’t help you, they follow the strongest. If he’s defeated, they turn towards the new strongest, don’t you know that? Anyway, where was I?”The fox mimicked to ponder while holding the armlock

“Oh yeah! Simple question: Why did you attack this poor wolf?”

_ “ _ Did you really think I’ll answer that?!” Pollix laughed.

_ “ _ Why not?”

Peter twisted the arm a little bit more, which made the goat groan in pain.

“Alright, Alright! He disrespected me!”

“By doing what?”

“He gave me a dirty look and took my food!”

“First, from what I can see, you have WAY more food that he does, then you sound very stupid!” he smiled

The goat, whose anger was extreme at this point, gesticulated more to try to free himself

“You’re hurting yourself more by moving like that!” Peter joked

Nick, who had just recovered from his near-death experience, approached and resumed

“I think I know there was some poem by Lafontaine named  _ The Wolf and the Lamb. _

It’s about it but in the opposite way, even though this sounds like an act of fair revenge, don’t you think? You should be more evolved than that?” He spread his arms with a smile  “So please attack mammals that are equal to you from now on.”

Peter finally released him. The goat groaned again and rubbed his ex-twisted arm. His anger, however, didn’t vanish and he soon charged the leaving foxes. Peter dogged it and punched him hard in the chest, which caused him to fall on the ground meters away, warped in pain.

“Fractures of 6th and 7th ribs, don’t worry, it grows back ! but you should see the nurse, for...you know, pain!” Peter winked.

As the crowd was scattering, both foxes went towards the wolf, who was still on the ground, alone.

“Peter, I should KILL YOU right now!”

“Will you do that to such a good friend?” he smiled.

They stopped in front of the wolf.

“Some help? You wounded?” Peter asked.

“No….thank you……”

“Come on, get up!” Nick offered his paw.

The predator hesitated a bit but after a sigh, he grabbed Nick’s paw and woke up from the dirty ground.

Nick looked at his face but when he realized who he was facing, his humor changed. 

“Hold on…are you..?”

Peter looked too and remained like marble.

“This way,” he added while showing a quieter corner of the room.


	13. The Greatest Plan

Once the three predators were isolated from any eavesdropper, Nick resumed his questioning

That black wolf was the one Nick had seen everywhere: the day he almost got killed and the evening at  _ the Ramsey. _

“Who are you? why did you try to kill me and what was in that envelope?”

“Ok, ok, first I’m not from Grittenhouse, I worked with them but got fired a month ago before going to jail…..It was nothing personal, I was paid to eliminate you.”

Seeing that Nick was tense, Peter took the lead.

“Who hired you ?”

“I don’t know, the only thing I know is that he was named… Mr. X or something like that...”

Peter and Nick looked at each over

“Do you know anything more about him?” Nick asked

“Apparently he was  _ thrown in office _ 5 years ago, after what they called  _ Operation Bomq  _ “

“AKA Zoo York’s money heist I performed before leaving….” Peter added

“So someone took your place…..that fanatic guy that accused everyone of treason wasn’t you…….How didn’t anyone know about that?” Nick asked

“Only a few high ranked members know when the boss changed, we didn’t want the cops to have any idea, it would have helped them. They may have discovered that Mr.Grittenhouse had left but they didn’t know who the new one, Mr.X, was, I was so discreet when I escaped that no one thought I’d left the organization, and they think I’m still him”

“What was your job ?” Nick asked the wolf

“I was in serious financial debt, retired from the military. I have my daughter to take care of….” he sighed “So one day, someone called me for a job, he knew my situation and told me he could solve all my problems in exchange for my skills during a ‘mission’. I accepted the offer and they told me you were a traitor that needed to be eliminated, I also had to make some fireworks as well: to  _ show the example  _ as they said and also to prepare  _ Skyfall” _

_ “ _ Skyfall?” Peter repeated in surprise “what the heck is that?”

“I dunno…..they only told me that, I just followed the instructions and fled by jumping in the thick vegetations of the canopy” he looked down, ashamed

“What happened next?” Nick continued

“I got paid and they helped me a bit with my problems but they soon called me back….maybe about a month ago. They said I’d fail and if I wanted to stay alive, I needed to do something else, that’s how I ended up bringing a set of photos to some other members at  _ the Ramsey _ ...but someone stole the files and fled with them….A few days later, the police were at my door, ready to arrest me for murder….”

“That’s…..there’s something wrong…..Grittenhouse isn’t like that! Even how aggressive it was, it wasn’t THAT unfriendly towards its members…” Peter answered

“Hold on, you know something about them?!” the wolf asked, surprised

“He was just their boss for some time! nothing serious!” Nick joked

The wolf didn’t know what to say and his discomfort was palpable 

“It’s not Grittenhouse anymore...it’s worse….way worse….” Peter resumed “And what they’re preparing isn’t good…” 

“But the real problem is  _ who _ is the current boss?” Nick finished “...and that guy is responsible for all that mess….”

He paused

“Do you think having both of us in prison is part of it ?”

“I doubt it’s a coincidence now….but why…..” Peter pondered

Their discussion soon ended though, as a female pig guard called:

“Wilde!”

“What’s going on sweetheart?” the red fox winked in insolence

She rolled her eyes, desperate

“You have some company!........in the visiting room !”

Nick’s confidence turned into surprise - who would want to see him after a month of imprisonment? He didn't bother himself asking more questions and followed the pig.

He was brought to the visiting room, what a paradox: the room was cut in two but by a protecting reinforced glass, one half for the prisoners, all guarded, and the other for visitors. The only way for the prisoners to see their close friends or family was through the glass and every talk could only be heard through the phones.

Nick was escorted to one of the visiting slots. To his surprise, his visitor was no other than… Finnick.

His ex-hustling partner was seated in front of the window, phone inside the paw and emotionless as always. When he saw him however, he smiled. 

This triggered Nick. it wasn't something Finnick would do, especially to someone he stopped working with; something was wrong

“Hey, dipu!" He launched

As soon as he said that, Nick was sure the fennec wasn't in his normal mood, he acted like a joyful and happy mammal seeing his friend, which wasn't even close to his behavior in real life.

"Just came here to tell ya that zoopy is sick and needs to see the doc anytime soon. So I’m gonna go and see him tonight around 8 when he’s available”.

Nick knew his friend too much to not see what he was trying to do: deliver a coded message. He seemed to immediately understand and tried to answer the same way Finnick did.

“And are you going to bring his toys with him… for him to be reassured?”

“Yep, he’ll need ‘em even if he’s a strong boy….” he winked. "Anyway, I need to go, have a nice stay!”

"Will try!" He smiled

The fennec left the facility as Nick was getting escorted back inside the block.

His smile faded as soon as Finnick was out of sight, he was thinking about what the little desert fox told him and everything it involved. Whatever was happening out there wasn’t good….It wasn’t good at such a point he needed to get out, and he needed to be at around 8. He looked at the clock and almost shocked: it was already 7:30

He needed to act fast

As soon as he crossed the cell's door, Peter greeted him but Nick, however, was hurrying and cut the blond fox straight

“Oh Nick! you’re b….” The red fox grabbed Peter by the shoulders and pushed him towards a more isolated corner of the cell.

“Listen to me carefully…..I have a way outta here!” Nick whispered

Surprised, Peter didn’t move anything except his eyes to show his misunderstanding.

Nick explained what had happened: Finnick’s visit and what he told him.

The blond fox, frozen like a rock at first, began to snort and laugh

“You serious?” he asked between two laughter “it’s a high-security facility! It’s MEANT to prevent anyone from escaping!”

“We need to though! things aren’t good out there! we need to act fast!” Nick insisted 

“and If I learned something useful in my life, it’s that there’s always a way out…….that’s what Judy taught me…” he continued on in a calmer voice “There is always a way….”

Peter looked comprehensive towards Nick, silently pondering for a few minutes, under the impatient gaze of the red fox. 

“I have a better plan!” Peter finally exclaimed, he ran out of their cell. Nick instantly followed him, not knowing what his cellmate was up to.

As it was the free time period, all the cells were open so he ran into a rhino’s cell, climbed the sink, and quickly grabbed a toothbrush.

His owner yelled. “The heck are you doing?! Give it back or I’ll use your skin as my next carpet!”

Peter didn’t listen and jumped off, the rhino ran after him but the fox was too fast, he ran out of the cell and threw the tool off the gate, it landed on a Hippo’s head.

The victim of that little joke groaned in anger and slowly looked up to see an angry rhino leaned on the gate right above him.

“You…..get your ass over here !”

“Hold on Daniels! it’s not me, it’s Wolson!”

“Did you really think I’m so stupid you dumbass!”

“What did you say ?!”

“I said you are a dumbass yeah!”

It didn’t take long for the rhino to jump above the gate and punch the so-called Daniels in the face, the two massive mammals began a ruthless fight which soon involved their respective friends: the fight went from a one versus one to a whole gang war, It didn’t take long for all the other prisoners to use that distraction in order to settle some scores. In a matter of minutes, that little joke turned into a general fight involving pretty much everyone, including the guards trying to bring order to that mess.

“Wow…what a….great...plan.” Nick sighed, surprised.

“Come on!” Peter called him as he ran towards the cafeteria, the red fox followed him, avoiding various punches from all the fighters and guards.

They approached the security room, usually it was locked but with that slightly tense situation, they were kinda too busy dealing with the fight to notice two small mammals sneaking in.

The foxes leaned against the wall, next to the door. Once a guard exited like a shot, they rushed in and threw themselves under a shelf.

The room was almost empty, only one dog was suiting up.

“What now?” Nick whispered

“You see this?” he pointed something that looked like a crowbar, it was lying on a shelf on the opposite side of the room “it’s our key out, stay here”

Peter crawled under the shelves to approach his objective. Once at the end of the storage furniture he tried to slide underneath another one but his target didn’t have any space under it so the fox loudly crashed on the metallic door.

“Hey there! paws up!” The dog yelled

Stressed out, Peter uncomfortably tried to speak, paws up

“huh….I was just…..hanging around…”

“Oh really? just follow me if you don’t wanna make things worse for y…”

The dog received a hard knock on the head, making a ridiculous face before falling on the ground.

Nick was standing behind him, the crowbar in his paws 

“Wow! I've always wanted to do that!” he smiled 

Peter smiled back

“Nicely done, now let’s go!”

They ran towards the cafeteria, completely deserted at that time, and  used the crowbar to force the door, and after a few minutes of strength and elbow grease, the lock broke and the door opened. They threw the tool above the metal detector to not trigger the alarm. 

Peter then went towards the kitchen and forced the door as well. 

“What’s the plan? make us some pancakes?” Nick resumed, skeptical about why they were here.

“hold on a sec…” Peter raised his paw in the air to tell Nick he needed some concentration

He searched the room until he found a railing near the ceiling, above a fridge.

“There!” he exclaimed

Nick titled his head on the side

“Vents? are you sure it’s safe and lead us out?” He questioned

“I have no idea!” he smiled “but it’s that or nothing” 

The foxes climbed the freezing device and used their crowbar to force the vent’s entrance but it was harder than they thought: it was screwed: the crowbar couldn't do anything against it.

“Well….we’re done….” Nick sighed

“Don’t underestimate our friend crowbar!” Peter answered. He unscrewed one of the tool’s end, it revealed a screwdriver

“How?!” the red fox exclaimed

“Some devices like that exist, and I was lucky to know that they got some of these here”

Peter used the device to open the impenetrable area, once open, Nick entered, followed by Peter who made sure everything was closed behind them.

“Now let’s follow the route shall we!” Nick exclaimed

\--------------------------------------------------------------

It's been a few minutes already they were crawling in the various ducts, and both foxes were starting to regret their choice.

“the  _ greatest plan  _ huh?” Nick ironically said

“Oh come on! you had a better idea?!” his acolyte answered with an irritated tone.

“No, but it would have been better to enter these while knowing WHERE TO GO!”

“Oh let me think…..I usually DON’T GET IN VENTS! so please stay calm, yelling won’t help”

“Calm?! but I’m calm! I love being stuck inside some unknown old vents!”

Nick kicked the wall, but he did it too hard and the duct started to make cracking noises

“Oh oh…..”

It didn’t take long for it to collapse. They made a ten-meters fall and landed in a dumpster of dirty clothes 

Nick got out first, pinching his nose, and made a few steps.

Once he was far enough of the toxic area, he took a deep breath.

“Peter? you okay ?”

“Fresh! unlike those….” He answered while removing a sock from his muzzle “Where are we though ?”

The room was gigantic, would that be the length and width or even the height of the ceiling. It was surely a warehouse used for storage. There were supplies containers on one side and waste ones on the other. 

They made their way through, trying to find an exit. As they passed in front of large noisy machines, there were six of them, aligned behind a security gate. They were the size of an elephant, painted in black with regular yellow stripes.

“What are those?” Nick asked

Peter examined the intriguing machinery

“looks like a power generator….but it’s more….modern”

He went at the back of it and saw two gas tanks

“Those are fuel cells…” he whispered

“Here!” Nick yelled “an exit!”

Peter joined Nick in front of the big metal door. It had three windows, each one adapted to the different species’ sizes, one at the bottom, the second in the middle and the third at the top. 

They took a look through the second one and saw what they wanted to see: the outside

“Great! now let’s open it!” Nick joyfully declared while trying to open it. They both tried with all of their strength but it wouldn’t move.

“We are screwed I guess?” Nick asked, hoping for Peter to have a solution but he clearly showed he didn’t.

Nick sat against the door and sighed. But Peter was up to other things: he was thinking, he always did but that time he was up to something different.

“Fuel cell…...Oxygen plus Hydrogen….electricity……...Hydrogen….” he mumbled 

“Of course! HYDROGEN!” he slapped his face. “ I have the greatest plan!”

“Wait..what ?” Nick pulled a face 

“Come! I need your help!”

“What the heck do you wanna do?”

“You know what’s cool about hydrogen?”

“No?”

“It’s highly inflammable, and mixed with oxygen, it’s explosive!”

“So you wanna make us explode?!”

“Yeah!” he smiled “And we’ll have a nice way to escape”

“you’re insane!”

“I thought you’d already figure it out by now!”

The blond fox climbed the gate and opened in from the inside, he grabbed four spare gas tanks and made them roll towards Nick who seemed terrified as he saw all the danger pictograms drawn on them. He preferred to dodge them while they were approaching the door

“you ready?” Peter resumed

“what? NO!” Nick answered, surprised as he realized Peter had already opened some of the bottles and was waiting with an incandescent fiberglass.

“I consider that as a yes!” 

He opened one of the oxygen tanks and increased the airflow.

“You should take some cover” he winked

The fiber quickly caught fire, Peter threw it between the tanks and jumped behind a container.

As soon as it reached the tanks, the gas inflamed, and the various tanks started to explode. It all ended up in a large explosion, the blast was so powerful that everything in the room was blown away and many supplies caught fire as well.

\-------------------------------------------

Nick woke up to the annoying and repetitive sound of the fire alarm. He was laying on the ground, a few meters away from where he used to be when he tried to cover himself. Thankfully, no debris had fallen on him and he wasn’t wounded, except for a few minor contusions. 

He stood up and looked around. The fire wasn’t as intense as he had expected: only some isolated containers were burning while most of the area wasn’t anymore, even though the explosion had caused some serious damages to all the equipment, the once organized warehouse was now a no man’s land of debris. The door that blocked them had completely vanished….as well as a large chunk of the wall it was inserted into.

“Peter? you alright?” he called, as he started to look for his partner. 

“IT’S EVEN BETTER I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE!” someone yelled

Nick followed the sound and discovered a joyful Peter laying on the ground, between debris. His face was lamp black but he didn’t seem to be wounded and displayed a beaming smile.

“IT’S THE FIRST TIME I DO SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY WORKS IN CHEMISTRY!” he continued “FUCK YEAH! GET THAT YOU TEACHERS!” he yelled even harder, raising his paw in the air.

Nick giggled in discomfort

“Yeah...it’s….nice...what do you think of getting out while we still can?” he offered his paw

“GREAT IDEA!” Peter insanely smiled

Nick helped the blond fox to regain his senses. They then went towards the hole in the wall, dodging the debris until they were out. It was a parking lot, but it wasn’t quite the outside, they needed to cross a twelve-meter-tall wire fence with barb wires on top. 

Unfortunately for them, that  _ little disturbance _ had triggered the attention of the security and the half-destroyed warehouse was starting to get searched.

“In the snow!” Nick whispered

They both jumped headfirst in the cold white matter, buried themselves and waited for the guards to leave but soon they got spotted by their scent thanks to a dog’s sophisticated muzzle.

“Paws up! you’re dead!” he yelled, pointing a gun at the two snow hills whose non-naturalism was obvious

“Ok, ok…” 

Nick was the first to unbury himself and was followed by his cellmate, they stood, paws up, in front of the guard

“What do you think of…..OH! look!” he yelled while pointing something behind the dog.

The guard instinctively turned around, The red fox used that diversion to try to flee but the surprised dog was too fast.

"Hey! I should shoot you for that!" He yelled while catching up with Nick, They both were in the middle of the road with the dog.

"You're not going to end up good mate!" He threatened with his gun.

But as soon as he said that, a police van entered the area at full speed, breaking everything in its way, when he approached them, he braked hard enough for the tires to whine but not enough for the vehicle to stop, bumping into the guard in the way, he was projected a few meters away.

Nick had jumped back in the snow to avoid being hit as well

The passenger door opened to a familiar wolf driving the stolen vehicle.

“Need a ride?” he asked with a smile

The foxes didn’t wait any longer and jumped inside as the other guards opened fire on them.

“Brace yourselves! it’s gonna shake a bit!” he shouted while the canines were closing the armored door

“Oh, c’mon it can’t be that…” Nick started while the driver sank the acceleration pedal and quickly shifted gears

The foxes fell back, Peter in a seat and Nick in the middle of the van’s boxes of material in the back.

  
The vehicle crossed the whole area with ease, the armor preventing everyone from being hurt, t he exit was almost there, but highly defended by spike strips and other trucks full of armed mammals.

“What do we do?” Peter asked, worried

“Trust me” the wolf smiled.

Instead of continuing forward as anyone would think of, the wolf suddenly made the vehicle drift to turn left, projecting everything in the inside towards the right part of the van. After a 90° turn, the van accelerated towards another wire fence separating the delivery and visiting areas. With its momentum, it easily passed through.

The escapees looked for an exit but there wasn't any other insight, but the driver's attention was caught by a parked tow truck whose rail was inclined like a ramp.

"Prepare yourself for a small swan dive!" He screamed

"Wha...no!" Nick yelled from underneath the boxes he'd stuck in during the whole pursuit

The predator didn't notice him and accelerated even more towards the truck.

They all closed their eyes, preparing for whatever will happen.

Even though the van was slightly damaged by the collision and the skid on the rail, it managed to take off the ground and use its speed to fly above the last prison gates.

After a few seconds of free fall which felt like an eternity for the impressed guards as well as the escapees floating inside the compartment, it landed back on its wheels and surprisingly kept going forward.

The predators drove as fast as they could in the cold snowy desert until they couldn't see the prison nor the guards anymore

“That was……..great!” Peter hesitated

Nick finally freed himself from the back furniture, slowly standing up with some pain sighs 

"You won't have me in your car ever again!"

The wolf smiled while still driving 

“How the hell did you escape and steal that?!”

“Well, I used to be in the military, I have my methods!” he smiled.

“Anyway, many thanks huh?” Peter continued.

“Victor,” the wolf nodded.

“Thanks a lot, Victor, without you, we would have been screwed.”

“It’s the least I could do, you saved me once so I had to return the favor,” he smiled.

“You guys have a plan form now on?" He asked after a moment.

“A friend of mine should be around here…” Nick answered, "what time is it?"

Peter looked at the van's clock.

"8:05 pm...wasn’t it 8 in the first place?”

As soon as he said that, Nick's attention was caught by a flash coming from a nearby forest.

"There! That's him," he pointed.

Victor followed the road and entered the forest, they slid between the snow-covered trees and stopped at the location where an old and faded van was standing, a small fennec on board.

Nick left the vehicle he'd been trapped in for quite some time. Even though stepping in the snow in this cold environment after what he had endured wasn't what he liked the most, it was better than being stuck in that highway to hell of a van. 

He advanced towards Finnick's vehicle.

"You're late!" The fennec launched with a teasing smile as he was relaxing in the driver's seat, feet on the dashboard.

"Five minutes is considered late? Come on!" Nick smiled.

Finnick's smile instantly faded away as he was preparing to reignite the engine again.

"Anyway, we gotta talk…you and your friends should come, I think I know one of them quite well…it's some really serious business…" he said, worried.

Seeing his fearless ex-partner worried made Nick motionless, it wasn't something usual.

"What are you waiting for?! Call them and get in!" he yelled.

Nick finally moved and did what he was told to.

In a matter of minutes, they had completely vanished from the district.


	14. Phishing time

Sahara Square, 10 pm

Finnick made his way through the narrow street of the hot deserted district, He and Nick were in the front seats, looking for a space to park during the night. While Peter and Victor were in the back, doing nothing particular. They kept moving until they arrived in front of an enclosure made out of wooden planks. Nick got out and removed one of them, he got inside and opened a larger gate, letting the van inside before closing everything behind them. It was a wasteland between two buildings, the ground was dirt and covered with various garbage and abandoned stuff. Some trash cans were also laying near the buildings. The night was more clear and warmer than in Tundratown, the sky full of the summer’s last stars. 

Finnick parked close to the bins and got out to make sure the vehicle won’t be seen. He and Nick covered it with an abandoned tarpaulin they found around the nearby trash cans.

Once everything was done, they re-entered the van by the back door. The back compartment wasn’t large but it still left enough room for a bunk, a couch with a TV, and a small cooking area. all of them took a seat with the exception of Finnick standing in the back in order to be better seen and heard by the others.

“Ok so…” he started, coughing a bit to prepare his speech “First off, Hello Mr. Wolson, I am the one who contacted you under the nickname….you know”

Peter titled his head, emotionless  
“Sweetheart59?”

Finnick blushed as Nick was starting to giggle

“Sweetheart59?! are you serious!” the fox laughed even harder

“Yeah….yeah...that’s really funny but we don’t care! there’s something more important to talk about!”

“Wait…” Nick regained his calm “so you hired him to investigate my disappearance?! why didn’t you try to find me instead?”

“Well first off, I was in danger as well and your stupid plan was to be as quiet as possible, so I did the same by contacting someone that wasn’t directly linked and ask him to find any trail of your dumbass butt without being noticed by ‘em!”

“Well, it didn’t work out as intended!” the red fox teased

Finnick was carried away by rage. He suddenly approached the red fox and yelled at his face, all teeth out.

“Shut up! I’m still here to take the crap of you out of jail even after what you did to me!” 

Nick’s mocking attitude faded away as the fennec was approaching his face 

“Do you think it feels great to be left behind for 2 years? not even a hello, not even a happy birthday or anything, complete silence...for 2 damn years! One day, we’re the best acolytes, and the day after you disappear with that….bunny you met only a week or so ago and do the exact opposite things you used to!”

Nick replied with the same rage on his face

“That….bunny has a name! and she helped me a lot more than what you think! maybe even more than you!”

Seeing that the situation was getting out of paws, Peter intervened

“Guys! CALM DOWN! you’ll argue about all that later! there’s more serious stuff going on!” he yelled

The foxes instantly stopped arguing, filling the vehicle with silence, the tension faded as fast as it had started.

“Yeah…” Finnick resumed after a few seconds. Once he was calm again, he kept on going

“To make it simple, this….is…...BAD”

To everyone’s surprise, Nick didn’t take the opportunity to joke around, he instead looked concerned, barely listening to the conversation.

“As soon as you guys were arrested, and especially you Peter, some attacks happened, all with the same method as Nick’s assasination attempt. They were aiming at public and police services, some police stations and even the city hall, all claimed by you know who…” 

“Grittenhouse?” Peter whispered, looking confused.

Finnick nodded and continued

“....The police and media assumed that the group was avenging you for your arrest and it soon escalated into significant insecurity feeling and major unrest, you know, like last time with the night howlers but this time, it’s worse: people don’t fear the preds, they fear literally everyone.”

“Could that be worse?” Nick launched as if he had totally recovered from his argument. He opened the fridge and served himself a drink. 

“Well…..it is” he paused as Nick started to drink “your bunny friend joined them….”

Nick spat out everything he had in his mouth

“Wha...cough...WHAT?!”

“I was surprised myself but the news tells no lies…”

THe switched on the TV and played a recorded program from the Zootopia news:

It displayed the classical ZNN’s evening broadcast.

“As the tension rises throughout the city…..more and more unanswered questions start to accumulate about the unexpected Grittenhouse attack led by former officer Judy Hopps at the central police station. She used the same method and vehicule as all the other grittenhouse members. Unlike them though, and thanks to her knowledge of Police work, she managed to escape, leaving only a plate with a number that the experts are currently investigating.” 

The video showed a black van with the symbol all of them knew. it was circulating on the road next to the Central Police Station’s square but it suddenly turned and drove on it, almost hitting some panicked pedestrians, before making its way through the stairs and colliding in the entrance’s door. A bunny figure in dark clothes with a hood then exited the vehicle and ran out before the van’s explosion, losing something while running. On another camera from a nearby isolated street, she stopped running and removed her hood, reavelling a female grey bunny with purple eyes. She looked back, smiling and left the dead end.

As the anchorman was going to commenting the video and ask other questions to experts, Finnick switched the TV off

Nick was still looking at the screen, he didn’t move by an inch, astonished by what he had just seen

“I…..I can’t believe what I’m seeing….” he weakly said

“I can’t as well….She may have betrayed me but she wouldn’t do…..that” Peter added, seeming affected as well

“Whatever happened, she’s on their side...”

“And so what do you want us to do?” Victor asked

As Finnick was about to answer, Peter took the floor with determination in his voice

“We gotta stop them….” 

“You’re funny! how we’re supposed to do that! we’re 4 against a whole criminal organization and a government! There’s no way we could succeed!” Nick complained

“Maybe but none of them have what we do: us. We were the only ones to be part of the organization and managed to leave. So we know way more things about it than the police does, and we know things that will make us investigate faster. And it could make everything that gang has done in the past 50 years collapse: in one word we are the key needed to solve the case.” 

“What info do you have?” the red fox asked on a clam tone

“Everything we gathered with Judy, you and Victor. We’ll investigate the rest, being discreet is familiar to all of us, isn’t it?”

No one answered

“Talking about Infos, I may have something for you guys…”

Finnick opened the van’s back door, revealing a suricate Peter recognized immediately 

“Jimmy?” he asked, concerned by his friend’s inexpressiveness

“Looks like you forgot our little game session!” he suddenly smiled

Peter smiled back

“I was in prison pal!”

“Anyway, I received some Infos on my phone, it was sent from yours”

“mine?” he started to ponder

“Yeah, yours and it’s MAJOR stuff, I dunno who sent that or how that person did it but it has everything we have to make the whole organization collapse: many names, finances, ongoing operations, etc…and those are permanently updated on my phone thanks to your code! I’ll show you”

“You sure it’s not fake?”

“I dunno but that message was sent from yours, under a confidential code that is yours…”

“I handed it to Judy……” Peter casually declared 

“you what?!” Finnick yelled

“I handed my phone to her when I got arrested”

“Are you realizing you left all that to a traitor?!”

“She’s not!” Nick launched

“How do you call someone betraying you then?!”

“SHUT YOUR GODDAMN MUZZLES! It’s time to think straight!” Peter yelled  
“After we got arrested, she called me to try to have some answers from me...not gonna lie...we argued, but knowing Judy, she didn’t sound like she would betray anyone: she still wanted to arrest Grittenhouse”

“And when she wants something, she always fights for it….” Nick whispered loud enough to be heard

“When did you receive the message?” Peter resumed

“let me check…” Jim looked at the date “The day you were arrested, around 2 am”

“She called me around, around 1:45, I remember. And if the video of the first time she attacked anyone was taken 2 weeks ago, I think she was still eager to help us that night….”

“So you’re telling us that she found stuff she sends to us, then she joined them? that doesn’t make sense, why would she do that?” Finnick asked

“I have no clue, but from what I’m seeing, It looks exactly like the files I used to have when I was the boss myself….we should give it a look…”

Peter opened the files on Jim’s laptop:

-ongoing operations  
-members  
-finances  
-teams

-Skyfall

“It’s funny how these files look so casual!” Jim laughed

“We didn’t bother us with that, you needed a special key to access these systems, and only some high ranked members had it, in my case, it was my phone.” He looked at the last file

“What the heck is that Skyfall thing?!” he clicked on it but a code was required “Damit!”

“Whatever it is, it can’t be good…” Nick added emotionlessly

“Thanks for the help, Nick! We need brains right now, not clowns!” Peter answered on an ironic yet serious tone “Let’s take a look inside the rest” 

He opened the ongoing operation that displayed many operations that had already happened, including the city hall attack a week ago. There was only one operation planned for the next day: operation nibble, taking place in Sahara Square at the Palm hotel. Only a short summary was indicating what the organization wanted to do and the members involved, a photo of a chemical was linked as well.

Peter read

“Mi 1: ex mero  
Mi 2: eliminate Mr using A  
Mi 3: escape”

“What does that mean?” Victor asked

“Mission objective one make the meeting room explode, mission objective two….” he paused  
“eliminate the mayor….using what’s on the pic”   
He took a closer look at the chemical and saw the formula in between two pixels: H₂SO₄  
“Sulfuric acid….how barbaric”

“Dear God….what do we do?”

“Let’s first look at everything”

He opened the members file and saw a whole page of members with various code names, their date of integration, and their status: perfect, hesitant, traitor.

They made their way and saw that there weren’t many folders, meaning there weren’t many members

“It’s not normal, we usually have hundreds….and back at the time I and Mr. Grittenhouse were in office, there wasn’t any of that status thing.”

“And what does that thing even mean?”

He clicked on various members to see what they had in common

“All the perfect ones are…...insane…...I mean they’re the most fanatic of the group, wanting reversed supremacy or anarchy, they were given various harmless tasks to prevent them from taking other or do stupid things on the terrain. The hesitant ones are in between and the traitors are….what we could consider normal: all the ones that weren’t fanatics and fought for the cause…”

He looked at the last four ones of the folder, it was all of them: Peter, Nick, Finnick, and Victor, all considered as traitors and a note qualified them as eliminated just like all the other traitors 

“That’s…..off…..that boss is insane and that means really dangerous”

“There’s one folder you didn’t check up there: the latest one” Victor pointed out

There was a file named 1008/perfect/08/15/18, Peter clicked on it and they all froze with what they seen : a picture of Judy, aka member 1008

“She joined two weeks ago and is labelled as…...perfect…” 

They all silently looked at each other. 

Nick broke it after a few minutes

“We need to find the identity of that bastard of a chief!” he angrily said

“Yep, let’s see the finances one…”

He made his way through the folder and revealed many transactions that weren’t really interesting

“There’s nothing here…” the blond fox declared but Victor prevented him from leaving the folder

“Hold on! look at that”   
He pointed a recent transaction from The Ramsey   
Peter clicked on it to find more details

“It’s not the first one, they surely have some business there...It would explain why they were there that night…” he paused, thinking “unless….”

His face lightened up

“Jim! Can you crack the IP?” 

“Surely….yeah….I can try”

“Do it then! I may have something!”

As Jim booted is programs up, Peter explained

“The transactions are made only by the boss and there’s no way that this could have changed, if we spot the place, we spot him!”

Jim worked for a few minutes, no one talked to not disturb him in his process.

“There we go! It was all done from a room…..number 426”

Peter opened his eyes wide

“No….it can’t be……STUPID!” he slapped his face “How could I miss that?!”

“what do you mean?”

“Go back to the operation nibble…”

Jim carried out and brought them to the demanded file.

“Here” he pointed with his finger “you have the names of the members involved, in case you didn’t get it, the numbers stand for acronyms, two numbers equals a letter. For Judy it was 1008 : 10 for J and 08 for H : Judy Hopps.”

“And?”

“And here we have an operation that obviously involves the boss because it’s a dangerous one: we have a member named 0113.”

“01 for A and 13 for M….” Victor whispered

“And I know only one person living in the 426th room of the Ramsey….” 

he sighed

“Amy Miller…..”

A deep silence settled for a few minutes, everyone realising the whole thing

“I gotta admit she did a great job...she managed to make us appear as the bad guys and got everything she wants…”

“Great! What do we do now?” Nick asked

“We have two options” he paused “find a plan to stop her or flee the city and leave it to its fate, which I assume no one wants?”

“Yeah but how?! everyone’s against us,if we get caught we’re dead and if we ever succeed there’s no guarantee we shall live normal lives again”

“What’s better between being imprisoned after saving thousands of people and being a fleeing coward?”

No one answered

“Whoever wants to leave can do it now” Peter pointed the door.

No one moved

“I assume everyone’s ready for a plan then...” he confidently added, paws in the pockets of his prison suit.

“let’s go then!”


	15. Let the fun begin

_Palm Hotel, Sahara Square, the next day around 9 pm_

  
  


Amy Miller was looking at the district’s illuminated streets through the large windows of the meeting room. It was a conference space with about twenty circular tables all of different sizes to adapt to all the variant species of the guests. It was a luxurious white-colored room with a fancy carpet on the floor and luxurious decorating with furniture. 

Everybody was richly dressed, suits for males and impressive dresses for females, around 60 high ranked were here. The room also had a stage ready for some presentations. 

The area was still filling up through the only entrance, behind Amy, while many waiters in white suits were busy preparing the tables.

Someone about her size wearing a dark sweatshirt and of unknown identity approached her and whispered a few words to her ear.

“We got Infos: Wolson, Wilde, and the wolf escaped…”

“WHAT?!” she almost yelled. Seeing that some people were looking at her, she apologized, faking a sneeze and continued more quietly “how did that happen?!”

The figure explained to her how the predators escaped, she listened carefully until the end. 

“We always have to do things ourselves these days! everyone’s incompetent” she quietly mumbled “Anyway, we got more important things to do right now, we’ll focus on them later...”

“Ok, I’ll wait near the doors”

“Yeah, let’s wait for the right time” she smiled

The room was full and everyone started to sit down. Miller looked around to see if anyone was looking at her, then she took a small container from her purse and poured some liquid into her neighbor’s glass, she also took another one and poured its content in her own, before putting everything back in. 

The mayor, a bear, entered the room and got up on stage to deliver a speech. After a 2 minute-long clapping section and a 10 minute-long speech in which he mentioned all of the city’s current problems, he declared the meeting open and went to his seat at Amy’s table.

“Good evening miss Miller, I hope you feel good tonight.”

“I couldn’t feel better! And I’m truly honored to be here with you tonight.”

“It’s the least I could do after all the things you did for the city, giving information and arresting the so-called Alpha and some other Grittenhouse members that will help us stop that crisis!”

“Let’s hope this whole thing will end up soon.” She lifted her cup.

The mayor was surprised he already had something in his cup, seeing that misunderstanding, Amy explained.

“I already served you.”

“That’s really kind of you!” he smiled.

They toasted

Some catchy music suddenly started playing for the enjoyment of the guests but to the surprise of the musicians. The light switched off and only a light behind the thick red curtain illuminated the room. 

Someone behind it started to sing 

“Aaaaaaah ya ya yaaaaaah ya ya yaaaah yaaah ya yah!” As that anonymous voice was singing a rather unusual song, a fox’s shadow could be seen walking right behind the curtain “Ohohohoooo...Oh ya yaaah ya ya yaaah yaaah ya yah.”

The guests looked at each over in surprise, some almost laughing, some other quoting what was happening. The mayor looked at Amy in surprise, she smiled for a second but was quickly more concerned when he wasn’t looking at her anymore.

A second fox appeared behind the curtain and sang in unison with the first, both slowly walking with dancing steps from one edge of the stage to another. 

“ye-ye-ye-ye-yeh ye-ye-yeh Oh hohohoh ye-ye-ye-ye-yeh ye-ye-yeh oh hohohoooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaoh! aaaooo---hooo--haha” 

The musicians were more concerned and agitated, they didn’t understood what was that: it wasn’t planned in the schedule.

All of a sudden the curtain fell and both hidden figures revealed their identities: Nick and Peter wearing musicians suits were singing together with a bright smile and walking in a provocative way.

“nah-nah-nah-nah nah-nuh

nah-nuh nah-nuh nah-nuh nah-nuh nah-nah-nah-nah nun nun ah-nah nun ah-nah.”

Peter ended the song alone with an arm salute to the impressed assembly.

“nah-nah-nah-nah nah-nah-nah-nah-naaaaaaaaaah!”

Nick stayed in the back, smiling while Miller’s face distorted with both surprise and anger.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen! hope you liked that little cover of _‘_ _I Am Very Glad, as I'm Finally Returning Back Home’_ ! “ he exclaimed.

“Wolson?!” the mayor gasped. “Security!”

“Oh...If I were you, I wouldn’t bother with that...they’re on a 3 out of 15 on the Glascow scale” he smiled.

The mayor didn’t understand and titled his head

“That means they’re unconscious!” Peter explained “In addition I wouldn’t do anything stupid if I was you, everyone stays calmly at his seat or we’ll play some fireworks.”

He took a detonator from his pocket and everyone inhaled in fear

“This whole room contains more explosives than a military base, the first one being up there….” he pointed the ceiling in which an armed bomb with a blinking red light could be seen, barely hidden between two beams. “....so I wouldn’t try anything If I was you.” 

“What do you want ?….” the mayor groaned.

“I wanna save you” the fox smiled.

The bear burst out laughing

“Whaa….what ?! you gotta be kidding!”

He took his glass and was about to drink when Nick jumped from the stage, seized the glass and threw its content inside on a nearby plant.

The leaves quickly got eaten away by the liquid and the plant died within a few seconds.

“What is that?!” he exclaimed

“Something known as Sulfuric acid, it would have killed you this quick if you took a single sip!” Nick smiled.

“What does that mean?” the mayor asked.

“Try to drink what’s inside the carafe” Peter proposed.

The mayor served himself and drank.

“Water...nothing abnormal.”

“Yep! and now try miss’ Miller’s one.”

The dog was obviously furious but tried to hide it, which she was successful at.

Nick took her glass but surprisingly found no resistance from her.

The mayor drank and instantly spit out

“That’s acid! it takes like lemon!”

“Yeah, ‘cause it’s citric acid, it’s not acid enough to harm anyone though apart from a bit of stomach ache.”

“So what do you think?”

“I dunno…”

“It’s simple, Amy Miller tried to assassinate you!” 

“That fox’s crazy! Why would I do that?!” she protested. 

“Well, Mr mayor, who served you this drink?”

“Huh...Amy did…” he looked at her to find an answer but Miller didn’t react.

“Ok, now let’s look inside her little bag!”

“You have no clue and don’t know what you’re doing!” she smiled “my purse is right….” she looked for her bag but realized it wasn’t at her feet anymore.

“You looking for...that” Peter smiled with her purse in his paw “don’t look surprised, you should know foxes are fast! especially a former cop.”

Nick winked at her from the stage

“Let’s see…” he started to remove all of her stuff, “was is...THAT then!” He removed two bottles that displayed chemical danger pictograms .

“Hydrogen sulfide, AKA Sulfuric acid annnnnnd citric acid! it’s a match! wanna check?” he showed the bottle to the public, what he’d said was exact.

“We also got….” he searched the bag again “a detonator!” he yelled as he was reavelling the device

“Wait...YOU have the detonator!”

“Me?.......that toy?” he pressed the buttons of his device but nothing happen except some recorded explosion noises

“But that one’s the true one!” he removed a red button’s cover and pressed it, an explosion could be heard from the ouside’s parking lot.

“Was that anyone’s car?” he asked the audience.

“Great! gotta be Miller’s” he paused “Anyway, that detonator is connected to many other bombs including all the ones here” he pressed a button that made the bomb on the ceiling deactivate.

“And she also has a gun!” he casually declared while removing a 9mm pistol from the purse.

The mayor looked more confused, now avoiding eye contact with the dog.

“Why would she need all that for? If not to eliminate you by poisoning and everyone else with these bombs…”

“And why would you do all that?” the mayor asked

“Well, If I still was Alpha, I could have fled the city like I did 5 years ago after the heist, I could have already killed all of you with ease and do anything in order to not be trapped with you….but I didn’t….” he paused “it’s up to you. If you investigate more on her and especially at the Ramsey, chamber 426, you may end up with pretty interesting stuff. Remember that Alpha may be a criminal but not a liar : he never was and will never be…”

The mayor looked at Amy in anger while the dog displayed an innocent and panicked look

“You don’t trust him right? he...he’s saying nothing but lies and easy accusations”

“Oh and last thing!” he jumped from the stage and walked between the tables “You surely wanna know who….” he suddenly jumped on the corner in which the hidden figure was hiding and grabbed it, it tried to let it out but Peter’s grip was greater

“THAT person is…” he suddenly removed the hood and everyone stopped breathing, astonished. in front of them was standing Zootopia n°1 criminal : Judy Hopps.

“If I can recall correctly, she was talking to Miller, didn’t she?”

“That’s right!” someone launched as the whole room was nodding

“It’s up to you Mr mayor…” he finished while removing Judy’s gun from her sweatshirt

“Alright….arrest ALL OF THEM” he yelled to anyone willing to help, and they were numerous.

Miller instantly fled and Judy kicked Peter in the belly, which made him fall on the ground

Both ladies knocked the door down and tried to escape

“You go after Miller, I take Judy!” Nick launched as he was running after them

Peter jumped up and ran after the dog but the hallway splitted soon in two with Miller taking one and Judy the other, they both followed their own target.

Miller ran for the elevator and closed the door before Peter had the time to enter but he had enough to see the stage she was getting to : the roof

He hurried to the stairs and began a frenetic ascent, until he arrived at the top of the stairs and tried to open the roof’s door, but it was locked.

“Fuck..” 

He took some momentum and knocked the door multiple times with his whole body but it didn’t move. He took more momentum and ran as fast as he could and finally hit it hard enough for the handle to break, the door suddenly opened and he fell on the graveled ground of the roof 

A civilian helicopter had landed and Amy was running in its direction

The blond fox woke and tried to advance as well but the blast of the blades was too great to let him approach or see anything: it was too late.

Amy got on board and the helicopter lifted up and quickly moved away, leaving Peter alone on the roof, between the giant leaves of the Palm Hotel.

\------------------ 

After a few minutes of pursuit and endless hallways, Nick was still after her. Judy tried a final maneuver but ran into a dead end. She tried to get inside the only room available but found herself stuck, with Nick on her heels.

“Judy! stop there’s no way out!” he paused to catch his breath. “You can stop whatever you’re doing! Would that be if you infiltrated them or if she forced you to take part in all that! It’s all over now”

The bunny stopped in the middle of the room, seeing she had no way to escape

“You don’t understand anything…” she said in a calm yet angry tone.

Nick titled his head in surprise, maintaining some distance between him and her.

“Amy is the only person that helped me….that didn’t try to bury me alive...she opened my mind and I realized that I needed to change...to move on. and what a great way to do it as part of a loving community!” she smiled

Judy's enthusiasm was scary: she seemed completely insane. It made Nick slightly uncomfortable

“Huh….you can’t be serious?!” he paused “Grittenhouse made hundreds if not thousands of people suffer, especially these days...they’re doing horrible things like what was planned tonight! and it’s not gonna end soon!”

“And what’s the problem? Is it better than a decadent society made up of lazy mammals unable to do anything?”

Nick was getting more and more scared of what Judy had become, he approached her enough for them to have a normal discussion.

“You completely lost it….where’s the Judy I know?!”

“She’s dead! I’m a new version of her! a way better version!”

“Judy….” he paused “I know I messed up hard and made you suffer a lot, so I know I’m not someone you’ll listen to but….think about the ZPD: your dream job! your family! your other friends! you can’t sacrifice everything for….THAT!”

“All of that belongs to the past, I found everything I’ll ever dream here!” and among these past things you’re probably the most outdated one!”

It felt like a stab in Nick’s heart

“Wha?” he mumbled, shocked 

“YES! what did you think?!” she kept going with a sadic smile

“Listen….I…..”

“Yeah! I know! you’re sorrrrrrrrrry, everyone’s sorry!” she ironically acted

“I did that for your safety…”

“My safety!” she giggled “Yeah! MY SAFETY! Do you even REALIZE what it feels like to learn your partner died ?!

Do you realize what it’s like to feel literally empty for days?! not being able to do or think about anything! being constantly given love without even being able to return it with a slight smile? going to the psychologist to try to solve never-ending problems? and more importantly, what does it feels like to be manipulated and learn that that same person is actually ALIVE! And that all that was FOR NOTHING!!!” she yelled.

Nick really wanted to answer but he didn’t know what to say

“Don’t bother to say anything. There’s nothing to say. There never was...”

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused

“Were you stupid enough to not realize this?! we never were friends! I just used you for the case 2 years ago!”

It felt like another stab

“Huh? we’re partners…” he tried, sounding imploring

“We used to, but that didn’t mean anything, I only needed someone to help me out, any other mammal could have done the same! Why did you think I refused your camping proposal that day? Or any invitation of any sort with you! ”

“Judy….” he tried to gain her attention

“Shhhh, I don’t care! Do you think you mean anything to me? My father was right, you foxes are all the same: untruthfully, manipulators and stupid at the same time.”

Another stab

“Judy…”

“OH COME ONE WHEN YOU GONNA SHUT UP?! DO YOU NEED A MUZZLE FOR THAT? JUST LIKE WHEN YOU WERE 8 ?”

It was the final straw, Nick couldn’t hold his nerves anymore and suddenly slapped her with all of his strength in reaction.

She fell on the ground as a deafening slap noise echoed in the whole area, demonstrating the violence of the shock.

Nick instantly regretted and his face show true panic. 

“J...Judy wait…”

She rubbed her face and realized her lip was bleeding. 

“I don’t wanna see you anymore….never again” she added.

Nick didn’t move stunned by what he’d done and Judy ran out of the room without looking back.

Nick started to breathe irregularly as a panic attack was seizing him, he felt on his knees, looking at his paws while breathing loudly.

Finnick arrived at that exact at the entrance of the room.

“Nick! you o…”

As soon as he saw his friend in such a state, the fennec ran to him.

“I…….I……...I’m nothing but……..stupid…..I worth nothing!” the fox tried to think between breaths.

“Nick! calm down and breathe slowly!”

“I….I messed up!.... I messed up…... everything! I’m so sorry for what I’ve done

to all of you….”

“Come on, come on, it’s all over now…” the fennec added, trying to help him out.

“Especially you…...I’m sorrrrrry” he sobbed. 

“It’s ok, it’s ok don’t think about it…”

The fennec’s recomfort was so intense that it felt like it wasn’t really him

“Finnick you….” Peter cried as he arrived the room

The fennec clearly showed him that it wasn’t the time for that

Peter sighed, worried

“PAWS UP!” a SWAT officer yelled as he was entering the room as well.

“here we go again….” Peter rolled his eyes while raising his paws.


	16. Skyfall

Peter opened his eyes. He was sitting in the back of a police van, his head resting on the panel behind him as he stared blankly at the roof.

It had been an hour since he’d been cuffed, detained, and thrown inside the vehicle he was, by now, all too familiar with. In spite of his patience, his boredom was beginning to get the better of him. All he could do was tap his foot and wait, which was annoying him greatly...

Finally, the door to the van opened. None-other than the mayor himself, accompanied by the SWAT officer who Peter was arrested by, climbed aboard. The officer uncuffed Peter without a word, and stepped out the door.

“You were right,” the mayor said, we investigated  _ the Ramsey  _ and found a secret room with a computer which led to the Grittenhouse database. Everything you said was in it, as well as some other clues matching the police investigations.”

“That’s good.” the fox declared, apathetically.

The mayor raised an eyebrow in surprise. “That’s all you have to say?”

“Yeah.” He answered coldly, “I’m going to prison again. My friends are, too. One of them is emotionally destroyed and another’s not gonna see his daughter for a long time. Anything to celebrate?” He was distant, and his mind was wandering elsewhere. He made no effort to hide the contempt in his voice.

“Well… Speaking of going to jail, I have a proposition for you.”

Peter’s ears went up. The mayor had his attention, now. “What kind?”

“You and your friends did an excellent job figuring out what Miller and Hopps were up to. Even with what we had already, you got further than we ever could’ve. I’d like to see if you’d be able to keep helping us, and work with the ZPD to bring them in and sweep away this crisis once and for all. If you do that, I’ll make certain you and your friends are fully pardoned.”

Peter couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “You serious?”

“As a heart attack. Quite a few of the guests agree with me… Some of which are permanent members of the city council. You saved my life and the lives of many others tonight. Who knows what would have happened if these bombs had exploded…” He paused, briefly. “All you have to do is help Chief Bogo sort out what is left of that case and arrest everyone that needs to be. We’ll give you anything you need, you have my word”

The fox slightly smiled as the mayor motioned for him to leave the van. “ok then” Peter stood up and yawned. “Where is he?”

“Waiting for you outside”

He took a few steps but stopped and turned around just before stepping out.

“Thank you, sir… really.” he smiled

The mayor smiled back and Peter kept going.

The outside was a hive of activity: many police vehicles with their beacons as well as ambulances, firefighters as well as some mine cleaning experts. And obviously the media that kept harassing anyone passing near the security barriers. 

The Palm Hotel had totally been evacuated. Although the lights were still glowing inside, illuminating the whole area, no more problems had occurred, thankfully. Apart from the car Peter had slightly damaged: the fire had been put out.

He walked a bit, until he reached a more massive police van, obviously the HQ and soon spotted the police official.

“Chief Bogo!” He launched, arms spread.

The buffalo turned around and gave him one of his characteristic bored looks.

“Mr. Wolson….I wish I never had to see you again, especially in such circumstances but we have no choice”

“Yeah...what do you have that we didn’t reveal?”

“There’s that ‘ _ Skyfall _ ’ file we couldn’t open, some professional hackers are coming to help us crack that password”

“Yeah, I couldn’t either...Do you have more Infos on Miller?”

“Yeah, let me see….” He opened a file and put his glasses on “She arrived in the city 10 years ago, she used to be a florist and had one child named Cassidy. He was kidnaped 3 years ago, the investigation led to nothing so she quit her job and followed many therapies. Her relatives described her as fragile and unstable with tendencies to hysteria: she made some outrages in police stations and various other public facilities, even in the City hall. But she followed a treatment and in a matter of months she seemed more normal in terms of behavior. She started to be a private investigator from then on...Until we found, thanks to you, that she’d joined Grittenhouse in the meantime, rapidly overthrowing the weak boss with radical ideas and using the organization to her advantage. Until today, and you know the rest.”

Peter nodded.

“Anything about Hopps and the video regarding Nick?”

“We have no idea how one of our best officers turned to a criminal in less than a month, and that really devastates me... the video itself, in which we see Wilde kidnap a child, is authentic and it….”

“Ok, I’ve had enough” he gestured with his paws “Thank you, wait for the experts to arrive, I’ll see my ‘team’ “

The buffalo didn’t appreciate to be interrupted but nodded .The canine left him and moved to another car against which were leaning both Finnick and Victor, trying to pass the time.

“What are we up to boss?” The fennec asked, looking at his claws.

“You know everything, right?”

“Yeah and we all agree, but now is time to act, we missed both of hers and we gotta catch ‘em before they do anything!” 

“Agree” Victor added.

“You know Victor, you don’t have to follow us. You’re not linked with all that and you already did many things we cannot thank you enough for.”

“It’s okay, I myself wanna help you guys to end all this bullshit. I may be discreet but I have some things in my toolbox! And if that’s the price to see my daughter again, I’m a 100% in!”

“As you wish pal”

“Let’s gather everyone first, where’s Nick? Is he ok?” he asked the fennec, concerned about the fox’s state.

“More or less….but clearly not ready for any of this: he could barely stay on his feet an hour ago….”

“Where is he?”

“Back there, near the ambulance but I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to tell him anything about what just happened...”

“I’ll do my best…”

The fox made his way to an isolated ambulance. Nick was sitting on the rear end of the vehicle, looking thoughtfully at the night sky. His attention came back on Peter when he saw him approach, he wasn’t looking at him though

The blond fox sat next to him, on his right.

“Hey…”

“Hey…”

The silence was awkward but they both knew it was a necessary thing.

“How you doing?” Peter tried

“I dunno…….” the red fox sighed “I messed up…..again…..I can’t do anything right”

“Don’t say that, we revealed everything and the plan went almost as planned!”

Peter quickly realised that optimism wasn’t something Nick felt at that time. 

“You know Nick….we’re the same, we spent most of our lives messing up….and doing stupid things that make us either be imprisonned or be alone,” he paused, “but does that make us failers? No! look at what you achieved with Judy”

The red fox sighed as Peter realized his mistake.“Oh sorry! I didn’t mean…”

“That’s ok….” he sighed, raising his head again.

“She said…..we never were friends…..that the only reason she was my partner was because I was useful to her…..and other things like... _ horrible things  _ that hurt me, she knew it will”

“Oh c'mon! she was angry and kinda…mentally exhausted, everyone says bullshit when he’s in that state”

“But that does explain stuff….why she always had something when I planned to organize a party or a trip…...or how she made a joke when I asked her if she wanted to go on a camping vacation with me…..”

“How long have you been friends for?”

“2 years”

“2 years is a long time, it wouldn’t have last that long if it wasn’t real”

“But what if I was blind that whole time?! What if I didn’t know who she actually is?! What if I had hurt her all that time?!” he panicky enumerated.

“Calm down, calm down...She cares for you Nick, what I saw when I worked with her wasn’t faked: she was suffering, and you suffer like this when someone you really like is missing.”

“I dunno what to do! I...I lost her…. and It’s impossible to fix all THAT!” he lamented.

“It happened to me once….with Andrea.” he paused “We were doing everything together, constantly being with each other It obviously sounds good and normal for best friends isn’t it?”

Nick was finally looking at him, listening to his story. His eyes were shiny : he was on the edge of cracking.

Peter turned his attention to the desert in front of him.

“But that was  _ too much :  _ I started to get too invested and even  _ invasive _ in her life, I was like a parasite preventing her from recovering : She saw me everywhere : school, sports, free time and even sometimes directly at her house.But she was holding it all ‘cause she didn’t want to hurt me but it only made her accumulate things...One day, what had to happen happened: She said she was doing an ‘overdose’ of me and it was the final straw: we had an horrible argument in which both of us said all the other’s flaws. And the more you know someone, the more you know what can harm him: that was an emotional carnage…for both of us”

The blond fox was telling his story with a calm tone but some depth could be felt: it was something coming from his heart, from his inner him.

“We didn’t even try to see or address each other for a week…...any hope of things cooling down was unlikely….but you wanna know what?” he asked, turning back to Nick, who didn’t answer.

“It happened….She send me a text proposing me to see her at the end of a school day...we talked and every single thing we said earlier seemed to fade away: it was a new start….for both of us, I’d learned my lesson and she seemed to have done the same. We managed to rebuild our friendship in a healthier way, nothing bad happened ever again”

“If I and Andrea managed to, you guys can...there’s always a way...at least for that”

He solemnly looked at him

The red fox was still looking at him, probably thinking about what to say. He stood still for a few seconds. Until Peter invited him for a hug, which the fox didn’t wait to accept.

Nick was gripping him so much that it almost prevented the blond breathing.

“Man! you guys really like hugs!” launched with a radiant smile

The red fox only answered with a grin but it meant enough. They stayed like that for a few minutes, even though that felt like hours for both, none of them would break it.

“What are we up to? I need to think about something else…” Nick finally mumbled 

Peter answer on a calm and quiet tone

“Yeah...we need to find Miller..” 

“How?”

“With the only thing, we didn’t access yet….. _ Skyfall” _

_ \------------------------- _

“Yeah and what now, Einstein?” Finnick teased.

They were inside Bogo’s HQ van, Peter had launched the Grittenhouse database on a laptop and was now in front of the  _ Skyfall  _ password-entering page.

“let me try something…”

He tried many combinations:  _ Ramsey, 426, Grittenhouse, password, Miller, Amy, the Boss. _

But none of them unlocked anything and it started to annoy Finnick.

“Stop now! we’ll wait for the experts! they’ll be more cautious!”

“There’s no time for caution”

Peter pondered again, trying to find anything linked to Amy or the current situation.

The already furious fennec was about to snatch the pc from his paws but the blond fox used the advantage of his height to prevent him from doing it.

“Hold on!” he laughed, causing the Fennec to be even aggressive while trying.

“Please stop! I gotta think..Miller’s son is Cassidy….and she attacked some facilities linked to the police investigations right?”

Finnick finally gave up.

“Yeah and how’s that supposed to help us?!”

“She wanted justice…..justice for her son….Hold on” he looked at his partners who all nodded “I have A last idea…”

He typed  _ justiceforcassidy  _ and the file finally opened.

“Bingo!!” he launched with enthusiasm.

The file was full of various technical blueprints displaying many complex electrical and mechanical systems.

“What are those?” Victor thoughtfully asked as he was bending on the desk to take a closer look.

“Blueprints of…” he looked closer, recognizing some basic subsystems at first. But then, as he looked more and more, he found details that helped him understand what it was. Until he recognized some things that were...familiar to him...His eyes widened when he realized what the full construction was. 

“the Zootopian Space Station...”

“What the heck does that mean?!” Finnick launched, annoyed by all these riddles.

Peter continued as no one answered the Fennec.

“And this one’s the propellers and their subsystems…it’s used to reincrease the orbit’s altitude when it gets too low”

“What the fuck does that mean? She wanna build a spaceship?!” the Fennec yelled.

No one answered again so the blond fox opened the last image.

“and that is a map of the city….”

The map was a satellite view of Zootopia, but it was edited: it had a large red circle surrounding most of the city, with the center being the city center itself.

“what if….” he paused, thinking again. They were all silent, having no idea of what it was or what it meant to be used for

Peter’s face distorted as he got a revelation, but it wasn’t good news this time, his whole face showed an emotion no one had seen before: fear, he was terrified

“Oh my…..” 

“What?” Nick asked, concerned.

“What if it meant  _ literally  _ Skyfall…”

“she wants to make the sky fall on our heads?!” Finnick joked.

“No, but what if it was something falling from the sky….from above the sky”

“from space?” Victor proposed.

“Yeah, something like….a space station equipped with propellers... If she changes the direction of thrust, which is possible to do, she’ll turn them into retro propellers and slow down the whole station...But that one’s specially made to support the reentry’s heat….which means it won’t disintegrate and will be mostly intact when it reaches the ground...”

Nick now looked as terrified as Peter was

“Don’t tell me….”

“I fear that this is the explanation…for that”

He took the map of Zootopia and showed the red circle

“That circle as…according to the scale...a 10 km diameter” he paused” And that’s precisely the accuracy they have for the landing of a spacecraft…”

“That means it’s unlikely she misses it…” Nick whispered

“yeah, and even though she misses, the city center will likely collapse on the rest if it’s hitten…”

“How can she do that though? she needs to be onboard or something like that?” the fennec added.

“Yeah that’s weird, launches aren’t often….” Peter suddenly slapped his face “Fuck! There IS a freaking launch today and I FORGOT! How the hell did I forget that?!”

“When?!” The fennec aggressively asked.

“In about…” he looked at his watch “3 hours from now. The craft will need 6 hours to get there”

All the predators looked silently at each over, shocked in sudden understatement. All seem to realize the seriousness of the situation and what it meant, for the city, for them, for their families.

  
  


“We need to stop her” Nick said gravely “Or Zootopia will be no more…”


	17. Starmammal

Two police helicopters were approaching  _ Kerpolo island _ , also known as the space center’s island. It was a thin yet vast island 10 km off Zootopia’s harbor’s coasts.

Aboard the first, where standing 10 elite soldiers of various species while on the other, Nick, his crew, as well as Bogo, were gazing at their destination.

Enormous buildings were standing a few hundred meters down. . Some designed for research, others for mission control, and even rocket assembly. he could also see the gigantic, 10 km long tracks connecting the _ Vehicle Assembly Building  _ to the launchpad. A rocket was currently standing on it, ready to liftoff. 

Peter was leaning against the door’s window, looking at the facilities with fascination, almost forgetting about the whole situation..

Nick gave him a gentle knock on the shoulder

“What are you up to?” 

“I can’t believe I actually get to see it with my own eyes…..” he answered with a beaming smile. Even though he tried to act normally, his way of speaking and excitement betrayed him. “I’m just sad it has to be in such circumstances…..”

The fox smiled back, he knew that feeling.

“What’s the plan boss?”

“We prevent the launch and trap them here….if they still are around”

The helicopters landed on the mission’s control building helipad, all the officers stormed the building as police trucks from the local security were blocking all the exits.

Peter and his crew got out with Bogo. The buffalo, however, prevented them from getting in the building and gave him a metallic briefcase 

“May come in handy” 

The blond fox opened it, a set of five handguns were inside. He smiled

“You read my mind!”

They all moved in, quickly reaching the main control room. The mission’s brain.

The control room was gigantic, it had major screens in the font and a large isolated area in the back, located one stage above the ground level. It had a large glass wall that let see an observation room. The ground level was made up of at least ten rows of aligned computers and consoles.. On the wall in front of all the consoles, a large screen was displaying many flight programs and parameters linked with the current launch. Many flight technicians, who were up to their usual tasks, were caught up by surprise and stopped whatever they were doing. 

An angry skunk approached Bogo with a heavy tread, looking furious.He had a white shirt and suit jacket, as well as a typical mission control headset.

“What does THAT mean?!” he yelled in the distance.

Bogo looked down at the angry mammal, it was funny considering he was nearly ten times bigger than him.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Gene Zerman, flight director responsible for that mission!” he showed his badge “what is going on?!” 

“Peter! come here!” Finnick called

The blond fox was more looking at the screens with excitement, like a child on Christmas day, than actually caring about the situation.

“PETER!” he yelled.

Peter froze, realizing he’d been spotted 

“Oh...sorry….it’s always been a child’s dream haha….” he awkwardly tried to explain with an embarrassed smile “anyway! we need to prevent that launch!”

The skunk was so surprised that he almost laughed.

“Excuse me?! did you really think it’d work out?”

“ Well….yes! first, because we’re the police! and then because two psychos are gonna try to  _ steal  _ it”

“Are you kidding me?” he yelled “That’s just……how can you have the audacity of saying that! do you know what such a mission involves?! in time, resources...money and all that because you think some people are gonna…….. _ STEAL A ROCKET ?! _ ”

“Sounds insane, I know...but it’s the truth, why would we mobilize such means if it was a joke?” 

“Unless I have an official’s proper written order to not launch, I won’t stop anything!” he giggled.

“Oh come! always official! we are sent by the mayor HIMSELF!”

“Prove it!” he smiled

“If he was kidding, why would two mammals climb it literally 10 minutes before launch?” Nick casually declared while looking at the big screen in front of him

“WHAT!!” they both yelled in unison.

They instantly turned to the front screen: video footage of the launch pad clearly showed two mammals: a dog and a bunny, going up the launch tower

“OH THE HELL DID THEY GET HERE!” the skunk yelled

“Prevent the launch! I’ll catch ‘em!” 

“It’s Impossible now! we’re under 10 minutes!” he yelled, “the only way is the shut the automatic systems!”

“Ok! I’ll get there and shut down telemetry, it’s an onboard device right?”

“yeah….but you’re not qualified for that!”

“Oh come on! I have a college degree in engineering!”

“It it true?”

“Well...no but it’s the same as if I had, it’s the same Zoyus you have been using for decades now, I do! we don’t have the time to find someone else!”

“I guess we have no time….” the flight director nodded.” but take that” he gave him a walkie talkie “you’ll need instructions”

Peter nodded with a smile

“Off I go! be ready!” he launched while running towards the exit.

“I go with him!” Nick added.

Finnick tried to stop the fox from going.

“Wait! Ni...” he stopped, the fox was no longer in sight “nevermind…”

Once outside, they found a small technical vehicle, dislodged the driver and got in.

“HEY!”

“Sorry about that!” Nick launched in response as Peter was starting the vehicle.

They rushed towards the launchpad, majestically standing two kilometers away, with its gigantic rocket waiting.

\------------------

After a few minute’s ride, they finally arrived at the bottom of the 50-meter-tall launch tower. The large infrastructure was connected to the rocket by many wires and pipes, some of them letting fumes out of the rocket, It dominated them by its complexity.

However, they didn’t wait any longer and ran to the elevator that led them up, towards the craft.

“Do you really know where it is? I mean, it’s a freaking spacecraft with many subsystems…”

“As a teen, when you were stealing trolleys with friends, I was studying such spacecraft in details”

Nick made a blasé face “you must have had a wonderful childhood….”

Peter giggled.

“it’s here!” he suddenly pointed as the elevator was stopping.

As they were moving towards the rocket’s body, a pipe detached below them, releasing massive fumes in the air and making the whole structure tremble

“It’s just the pressurization pipe of the first stage! hurry up!”

“Here we go! it’s here! grab a screwdriver from the panel behind you” he took his walkie talkie “Mr. Zerman, I’m in front of it!”

“Ok, just unscrew the panel”

The fox did what he was told to do.

“Ok, what now?” 

“enter the following co-”

The skunk didn’t even finish his sentence that a large bang tore the atmosphere:

the platform Peter and Nick were standing on was retracting, it was taking them away from the rocket.

“oh god….” Nick groaned

“Up there!” Peter yelled while jumping up and dragging himself on the above platform.

Nick gasped when he saw the marvelous hight below them

“come one sissy!” he offered his paws.

Nick jumped and Peter pulled him up, they were 

“what’s going on?” he yelled in the walkie talkie

“It’s too late for telemetry! get to safety now!”

“too late! we need another plan!”

“it’s impossible!”

“No,...it’s necessary...” 

He threw the walkie talkie out of the way and approached the craft.

the platform was right above the craft’s hatch, which was starting to close.

“NICK! jump!” he yelled, showing the way.

They both jumped and sneaked inside just before the hatch completely closed.

They were inside the storage area of the craft, the airlock door locked itself with loud mechanical sounds.

Nick approached the window and noticed that all the remaining connections of the tower were detaching from the rocket.

“Oh great! we’re stuck inside now! stop that goddam launch!”

“I’m afraid it’s too late now”

“What?! why are we here then!!”

“Oh…..well, Nick...I have good and bad news. bad is that there’s no way to prevent the launch 

but..”

“But?...”

“You’re gonna be the first hustler in outer space!”

Nick turned pale

“No no….we can’t...space….danger…..death…” he looked for any way of opening the airlock door “let’s just find a way out! quick!”

“Even if you sprinted your way out, and assuming you could fly, you wouldn’t be out of the danger zone before the liftoff” Peter explained, “Do you wanna be a fried fish?”

“huh….but….we’re not trained! we dunno how that works!”

“I know, but we gotta do what we’re best at: improvise. find something soft and make sure to breathe and by ‘breathe’ I mean literally force air in your lungs”

“you sure?”

“Of course not! but that’s the most logical thing and I spend my life studying it”

Nick found a comfortable spot and laid down, as many noises filled the atmosphere: cables and pipes disconnections, fuel fumes being released, the last platforms being retracted.

Then the water canon being activated and the engines being ignited. The whole vehicle started to tremble as a slight acceleration started to pull them down.

“Oh God… I have a bad feeling about this…”

“Let’s freakin go! woohoo!” Peter exclaimed

The rocket lifted off with all its majesty. It was a wonderful sight: the rocket gently accelerating towards the sky and gaining altitude quickly. Soon the gigantic machinery became a tiny dot in the sky, a dot that kept on moving away, towards new horizons.

“Damit….” The skunk sighed. “I hope your friends know what they’re doing...”

“We’re in serious trouble….” Finnick facepalmed 

“Unless…” Victor continued 

“Unless what?!”

“If I remember plan B correctly It’ll take 90 minutes for them to make a full Earth tour, by then they’ll either be dead or back. So let’s prepare some recovery teams in the city!”

Finnick didn’t answer but nodded to Bogo. They all knew what they had to do: prepare and wait

and hope.


End file.
